Put Your Trust In Me
by AstoniaCrest
Summary: AU. Lightning had trouble trusting anyone new due to a past which was thoroughly heartbreaking. War between Cocoon and Gran Pulse long ago had made Lightning and Fang harbor hate in each others' nation and fellow natives. When Lightning transferred to University in Paddra, she ended up living with a Pulsian. And Fang wasn't at all welcoming at the Cocoonian's presence. -FLight-
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Well it's a new story attempted by me since it just suddenly came to me, so I decided to give it a shot. And don't misunderstand that I'm throwing Show Me Your Love away, it's just currently in a hiatus in the moment! There might be some mistakes in my grammar maybe so do point out if there are so I can improve. So anyway, enjoy! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything of FFXIII.**

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Put Your Trust In Me

Chapter 1 - Trouble

"Yes, Serah, I'll take care of myself. Yes, yes." A young woman with pink haired sighed into her phone, "Serah, I get it, stop repeating." She paused for a bit listening to her sister's complaints, "I don't repeat as much as you do." She stopped again when the other side countered her, "Alright, I get it. Stop nagging, I'm your older sister not you. I've got to go now." she tried to hang up but the girl on the other line stopped her, with another exasperated sigh, she said, "I'm fine alone. Now, bye." She hung up her phone without another word.

Glancing out at the sceneries of auburn red forests and mountains with her turquoise eyes, she sighed. She was about to arrive in a place she hates – Gran Pulse. She really did not have a choice not to go, since the course she was in needed the students to transfer to University of Paddra in order to gain exposure for said students. Lightning was feeling disastrous when she heard about needing to study at Gran Pulse for one and a half years after completing one and a half years in Bodhum University and it is a must at that, she could not understand the need for it since after graduating she will be enlisting into the Security Regiment of Bodhum back in Cocoon, namely Guardian Corps anyway.

The course Lightning took was Combat Training, and taking this course will allow one to get a one way ticket straight into the military force. For students who enrolled into Bodhum University for this course, they will need to transfer themselves to University of Paddra in Gran Pulse's capital, Paddra, to finish their course of studies there before being able to graduate and enter the army. Upon graduating, students can choose two alternate forces to join, for most Cocoonians they would definitely join the Guardian corps mentioned, and Pulsians will join Gran Pulse Military Force – Warriors Guild. For Lightning? Without a doubt she would be going to the GC.

The reason for her constant headache was the reason of needing to transfer oneself to Paddra, she really didn't see a need for that if one were to join GC after all. Although, Bodhum University and University of Paddra formed a collaboration had a reason, for Cocoon's side, they would be able to learn Gran Pulse's battle techniques and skills to be used against them if a war broke out again, as for Gran Pulse, it was almost the same reason except they wanted to observe Cocoon's future possible hostilities so they would be able to form a countermeasure.

Almost 16 years ago, a war broke out between Cocoon and Gran Pulse due to a conflict revolving around a precious resource called Eidolons, it was said that if one obtained an Eidolon, he would be granted unlimited power. Hungry for power, both forces fought against each other in order to retrieve all Eidolons available, but as war raged on, most of the Eidolons were fragile orbs which were destroyed along the conflict. And since war broke out, it caused both nations endless pain and a lot of casualties, thus they began to hate each other down from the bottom of their hearts. The war went on for 13 years until only for the recent 2 years that it had died down along with the former fallen leaders from respective nations and the new chosen leaders formed a truce, although the truce was fragile at first, over the two years it seemed to have strengthened.

Lightning was a victim from the war, when she was younger, her parents died in the war and left with only her and her younger sister. Since there were only the two of them left, Lightning took up the responsibility to live through hell to protect her sister amidst the disaster war brought. That explained why she hates Gran Pulse so much to the extent that she almost pulled out from her course. But fortunately for her, a GC Lieutenant had managed to talk some sense into the woman enough to make her stay in the course.

Sitting next to the window, she gazed out at the sceneries which were really, really beautiful in its autumn glory, but she would not admit it anyway, not to a country which she hates. Recalling back to her conversation with her sister earlier, she scowled at it. _Befriend someone? _She thought to herself in disbelief when she listened to her sister on the phone earlier. Be friendly? With Pulsians in Gran Pulse? Why would her sister even mention that she wondered, she should know just how much she hated the place, needless to say its people too. Well, more like especially the people there. How Serah could be so forgiving to Gran Pulse and what their people had done against them during the war was beyond her understanding. Leaning back against her seat, Lightning closed her eyes and hoped that trouble will be the last thing she encounters there.

XXX

In University of Paddra, students from another nation or states usually chose to stay in the dormitory, after all it was convenient, so most of the occupants were from Cocoon whereas only a small number of Pulse natives stay in there. In one of the girl's dorm rooms, clothes were sprawled almost every corner of the room, books and possibly animal skins lay across the floor and a red bladed lance which blades were folded inwards lay on top of a study table. On one of the two beds in the room, a tanned young woman with raven hair was sprawled on her bed, sleeping away soundly.

Then, a knock came to the door and a chirpy voice sounded, "Fang! Open the door!"

Silence - A loud knock came again on the door along with a yell, "Fang! Open up!"

Grunting, Fang pushed herself up from the bed then yawned as she stretched. Another impatient knock came and Fang had a scowl on her face then, walking to the door she swung it open to reveal a shorter, younger girl with red curly hair tied in two side ponytails and with bright green eyes, and wearing a thick jacket due to the slightly chilly weather. And with tired, blood-vein covered jade green eyes, she stared at the smaller form in front of her with a sulk.

"What do you want, Vanille? It's like what… 8 in the morning?" she managed groggily.

"I'm here to see if you'd finished tidying up your room and-' the younger girl stopped when she took a peek at the room and gasped, "Fang! Why is your room still in such a mess?" Vanille huffed, showing an unhappy face at the taller woman.

Fang yawned before answering, "Why wouldn't it be?" she said.

"Fang, you're not sending another girl away with your untidiness, frights and most importantly threats anymore." Vanille said with three fingers jutting out as she counted the woman's habits in chasing away other girls.

"I didn't chase 'em away, they wanted to get away, it wasn't like I pointed my lance at them and say 'get out' y'know." Fang said as she waved a hand at Vanille annoyingly before crossing her arms, she was getting annoyed at the lack of sleep for such a silly topic.

Vanille frowned, "Fang, as if saying 'I like skinning things' while having your lance in hand and an animal's skin in another with a seemingly crazy, dangerous grin wasn't enough to consider as a threat to ask them to get out? You're forgetting that I'm your sister here, I know your tactics. I can't believe you kept saying those words to those poor girls who came from Cocoon." She complained as she mimicked her older sister's move, glaring at her with a knowing look.

Fang sighed exasperatedly and uncrossed her arms, "So what?" she said tiredly as she put her hands on her hips.

Vanille gawked at her, "'so what?' Are you forgetting that you'd received a warning letter from the principal about not to chase anymore girls out of the room due to the mountain of complaints from the girls you chased out? If you chase one more girl out this time you're about to get sacked."

The tanned woman cocked her head to one side tiredly before waving a hand at the red head, "Yea, yea, don't worry geez, I'll be kinder this time." She said.

Vanille's frown returned, "Fang, I'm serious. You don't want to just leave me here alone too, do you?" she put on her best pout and teary eyes.

Fang swallowed hard at the irresistible expression, with a defeated sigh, she dropped her head and she muttered, "Geez… Stop being so dramatic, alright, alright, I'll tidy up soon and I'll try my best to be 'friendly', that enough?"

Vanille nodded, a smile appeared, "That will do it. I just hope the girl that will be sharing rooms with you this time is tougher than any before…"

Fang patted Vanille's head gently, "Don't worry, I won't get kicked out, promise."

The red head's smile broadened, "I trust you, Fang! Now get to cleaning, I'll be heading back to my room and prepare for the new semester's assembly later."

After a brief hug, the red head skidded off humming happily. Fang merely sighed tiredly and retreated back into her room then closed the door. Turning around at the messy room, she gritted her teeth and frowned. This will be one long tidying up, hopefully the girl that she'd be sharing this room with later was worthy enough for her 'kindness'. And hopefully that it would not be another Cocoon girl or else she might risk getting expel this time around.

XXX

The train finally reached the train station in Paddra around 8.30. As the train halted, Lightning stood and grabbed her stuffs from the luggage holder above her seat. After making sure that nothing was left behind, she made for the exit to the train station. Upon departing from the train, Lightning was greeted with chilly winds, it was a good thing she wore a thicker jacket than usual today. Lightning looked at the signs and headed for the counter to purchase a ticket for a transporter which will take her directly to the Central City of Paddra, where the university located.

After getting onto the transporter, she put on her headphone and clicked start on the music device that she carried with her, listening to her favorite songs playing as the world around her drowned out. About 30 minutes later, she finally arrived at her destination and she headed straight for the university, sparing no glances at her surroundings, uninterested in Pulse structures and items.

Approaching the university's tall and huge gate, she could not help but stopped and stared for a bit in awe at the huge gate and the huge structures behind the gate. After awhile, she continued walking towards the guardhouse. _Is this like a royal castle or fortress…? _Lightning thought to herself, a bit surprised at the size, though she shouldn't be surprise, after all Gran Pulse's land was twice the size of Cocoon, such a size for a university shouldn't be anything at all.

As she strode to the guardhouse, the guard in there registered her approaching figure and stood from his seat. Scanning her up and down, he immediately recognized her as an abroad student from Cocoon with her extraordinary hair color and pale complexion, most Pulsians were pretty tanned. The guard was easily fifty in his age with wrinkles swarming around his eyes, and a scar on his cheek must have a story behind.

That would probably explain the not-so-friendly greeting tone that Lightning was receiving from the man when she stepped to the open window.

He narrowed his eyes, "Aye, another Cocoonian eh. What's your business here?" his tone with mild irks.

Sensing his racism in his tone, Lightning merely looked at him with her icy glare, her own hatred taking over in conversing with a Pulsian. _Must be one of the Cocoon haters from the war, _she thought to herself as she held up her transfer letter and showed it to the man. "Dormitory." She merely stated with a monotone.

The man understood her question, but chose to mess with her, unwilling to give into a Cocoonian's cocky attitude. "Can't a Cocoonian speak more than one word? I thought Vipers were smart like Gran Pulsians? Guess history wrote that wrong eh."

Lightning's left eye twitched and her jaw clenched slightly, emitting a dangerous aura when her glare intensified tenfold at the racist man. "Guess a Pulsian is still the same, never knowing where they stand and being the rude species on earth. The war continued for so long must've due to people like you." She shot back at him.

The guard held a hand out the window, threatening to grab Lightning closer to him but she swiftly dodged. The man snarled at her, "What'd you say you lil'!?" he yelled at her angrily.

Lightning simply gave him another glare, other than the glare every inch of her appeared composed and calm, going through war period back in the days made her a tad wiser and cooler. "You're merely a guard, and I would hate to have trouble the first thing I arrive. So why don't you just tell me where the dorm is and I'll be on my way. Save the trouble for your back and your job, old man." She said with a composed tone.

The man gritted his teeth and pulled his hand back, then he managed through clenched teeth, "Straight in through this gate, take the second right, you'll find a white building with a sign at the entrance saying girl's dorm." With that, he sat back down in his chair and pressed a switch which opened the huge gate.

As much as Lightning hated the man, she still had her manners, "Thanks." She muttered before leaving for the entrance into the university. _Trouble first thing I arrived, how wonderful. _She mentally frowned at the thought.

The pink haired woman followed the guard's instructions and made her way down the straight path ahead with various students about her age, or some younger and some older passing by. Down the road, she could sense stares from some students but which she ignored, she was not about to jump into another trouble for punching students who stared at her on her first day here. A clean record would be needed to get a good recommendation in GC when she graduated.

When she reached the second right exit, she turned into the windy path which leaded far into the inner bit of the campus. As she walked along the path, she came to a white building not far where she stood, with a sign at the end of the path reading 'Girls' Dormitory'. Lightning was quite glad to see the building, she was half doubtful at the guard's instructions when she turned into what seemed like a woods, worried that the guard might have given her wrong instructions to make her go around like a ludicrous person.

Once she stepped into the dormitory's lobby, her eyes scanned the surroundings before landing on a door which had the sign 'Office' hanging in front. Lightning walked to the door and knocked on it a couple of times before getting permission to enter. Once she was permitted to enter, she opened the door and was greeted with a lady seated behind a desk with various small-cubicles rack lining on the right side of the office, most of the cubicles were empty however, there was only one left with a key in it.

The lady looked up at Lightning and smiled warmly, unlike the guard from before, she greeted her with a gentle tone. "Hello miss, how can I help you?"

Lightning was slightly taken aback at this person's manners, she half expected to be treated the same way as the guard on her way in earlier. Or maybe the lady didn't know she was from Cocoon yet, that would explain the manners. "I'm a transfer student from Cocoon, and I was given a room to stay here during my course of study."

Surprisingly, when Lightning mentioned she was from 'Cocoon', the lady's smile didn't falter, instead her smile only widened. "Oh so you're the girl from Cocoon, I've been waiting for your arrival. Let me get your key to your room." She got up from her office chair and headed for the rack on her left to fetch the remaining key before going around the table and handed the key over to Lightning, "Here you go, lovely."

Lightning took it and managed an awkward thank you at the lady's friendliness. _Guess not all are haters of Cocoon huh… _Lightning thought to herself in her heart. She looked at the key and a sticker was on the key, reading '313', that should probably be the room's number. Without another word, Lightning turned to leave but the lady stopped her.

"Wait, Miss…" the lady trailed off, not knowing what to address.

"Lightning." The pink haired woman voiced.

"Miss Lightning, there are a few things I'd like to tell you about staying here, please give me a few minutes will do."

Lightning nodded and the lady started, "First, you cannot stay overnight at someone else's room be it your friend's or sister's, so even if you had a fight with your roommate, you're not allowed to camp in other's room, this would be rule number 1. Next, rule number 2 would be no destroying of room's furniture, even if it was accidental from a fight with your roommate, you'll need to pay for the broken furniture. Thirdly, try to get along with your roommate." She ended with a smile.

Lightning arched an eyebrow at the last rule, "I think number 3 is hardly a rule."

"Well, it applies only to you. You see, your soon-to-be roommate is quite a problem, so do your best. And that is all, I hope you have an enjoyable stay in Paddra's dormitory." The lady smiled as she finished explaining.

Lightning could only offer a slight frown from what she just learned about her future roommate before leaving the office for her room. _What luck, hopefully it won't be a Pulsian… _Lightning silently prayed. After all, only most Cocoonians opt to stay here during their studies, and ending up with a Pulsian was harder than striking a lottery in Nautilus.

The pink haired woman went up the flight of stairs to third floor, along the hallway the walls were painted with shiny white paint with wooden doors lining on each side of the hallway. Although the designs of the hallway and the building were simple, but the carpeted floor Lightning walked on made her felt almost like she was here to stay in a hotel rather than a dormitory in a university.

She walked along the long hallway, scanning through the numbers hammered onto the wooden doors. Slowly, she made her way to her room, a miserable feeling suddenly welling up inside her.

XXX

Fang already spent an hour tidying up her room, but there was still quite a lot to clean up. Sighing, she picked up the remaining animal skins on the floor and piled it up on the study table, where her lance now no longer there but nestled between her bed's head frame and her wardrobe. Fang had spent the past hour collecting snack packages that were opened, either empty or spoilt to throw away into the garbage and rummaging through the various piles of clothing on the floor and on the other bed for important things to put away, 'important things' such as undergarments, for clean ones she would keep away while the dirty ones left piling on the floor, and also Pulsian artifacts she brought along to keep her entertained during her stay.

Turning around with a sigh, she was glad to see that only her clothing was left piling up across the floor. Slowly and tiredly, she kneeled and picked up some pile of the clothing which she considered as clean and threw it onto the unoccupied bed so she could fold it later or sort out some which were dirty and mixed in it. Then she picked up the remaining piles of clothing – easily a mountain high in her arms – which had been laying there with dirt for about two to three days now.

Just when she was heading for the door with the pile of clothes in hand, the door suddenly swung open, knocking Fang back and she fell onto the floor while the pile of clothes went flying to the intruder.

Fang groaned and cursed as she rubbed her painful bum, "Who in Gran Pulse's name…" she looked up at the intruder with a ready scowl but to her surprise, her dirty clothing were covering the intruder's face and she didn't know now she should continue her curse or she should laugh at the sight.

But the latter thought was wiped off when the intruder grabbed her clothing off her head and greeted her with a dangerous glare with the clothing partially revealing her piercing turquoise eyes, Fang could almost feel the air went chill but she could still manage that glare, after all she was one of the few experienced and skilled fighter/hunter in Gran Pulse if the intruder wanted a fight.

Lightning grabbed the weird smelling cloth off her face and glared daggers at the tanned woman sitting on the floor in front of her, this was not a greeting that she would be happy with and it definitely would not help in making her get along with the other party. Then, when she looked closer at the woman, she realized one horrible fact.

The woman was from Gran Pulse.

Fang almost wanted to avoid having a bad impression with the new roommate by apologizing, but then she stopped as she saw the intruder's revealed appearance which bore pink hair and pale complexion.

The woman was from Cocoon.

Both of the women's glares intensified and a scowl spread across their faces, jaw clenching from Lightning and teeth gritting from Fang, both had the same thought in mind.

_Just my luck, trouble came._

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**Kindly R&R if you don't mind, I appreciate constructive criticisms. **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: So I decided to continue writing when my muse was still high in the air, after this chapter I'll stop posting new ones in the next two or three weeks with final exam coming along with just a few more days, so please understand. Readers, have an enjoyable reading!**

**Disclaimer: SE owns all FFXIII stuffs. **

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Put Your Trust In Me

Chapter 2 - Incredulity

Off all the people that she would probably end up with as her roommate, be it a loudmouth or an annoying girl she didn't care much as long as the other party originated from Cocoon, but out of all the possibilities, Lightning still could not believe her luck in ending up with the least possibility, which was resulting with a Pulsian as her roommate. Lightning was being told before coming to Paddra that the dormitory at the university consisted mostly Cocoonians, so ending up with a Pulsian was almost zero possibility, now she really need to reconsider that. _I should probably consider buying lottery… _The pink haired woman thought to herself as a sigh escaped her while unpacking her things.

Fang was at her side of the room – now the room had been divided to two regions automatically, one for herself and one for Lightning – folding up her pile of clean clothes which she piled up on bed earlier from the tidying, she mentally cursed at the effort of tidying up the room only to welcome another Cocoonian, and one who almost hit her at that. She was not pleased with the outcome when they request for a change of room only to be told that there were no more unoccupied rooms left and the only option for the two would be to move out. Huffing, she picked up the pile of folded clothing and put it away in the wardrobe.

*Flashback*

Lightning grabbed the clothing that was draped on her head away and glared at the clumsy woman in front. Then, her face turned into a scowl upon realizing that the woman was a Pulse native.

As the piece of clothing was being removed from the intruder's face, Fang immediately recognized with one look that the woman standing in front of her was from Cocoon, a mirroring scowl appeared on her face then.

Neither spoke up to each other but merely glared daggers, then Fang let out a huff and finally broke the silence, "What're you looking at, you intruding Cocoonian? " her tone one of irritation and provoking.

Lightning's left eye twitched at the first response coming from the tanned woman, she was expecting an apology, but perhaps she was expecting too much. "At a clumsy Pulsian who couldn't even handle her own clothing." She voiced with a stern tone.

Fang climbed to her feet and her scowl deepened, "You were the one barging in without a knock and knocked me down."

"I knocked, but it seems that you were too deaf to hear." Lightning countered, her own scowl deepening.

The tanned woman clenched her jaw before she spoke through gritted teeth, "You're one hell of a Cocoonian for pickin' a fight with me."

"From what I remember, it was you who started this argument." The pink haired woman said as she narrowed her eyes dangerously to slits.

She was right, but Fang was not about to agree to that. "So are you apologizing or not, huh?" she stepped forward, closing some distance between them with a threatening aura.

Lightning stood where she was and did not budge one bit, "Are Pulsians all so unreasonable and prone to violence, I wonder?" her right hand clenched into a fist, ready to fire a punch any time now if the woman comes anymore closer.

Fang snarled at her, "You damn Cocoonian-" she moved in closer to threaten the shorter woman, but she was suddenly greeted with an incoming right hook. The hook was fast, but luckily Fang managed to dodge it just in time as the hook brushed her nose lightly, she could even sense the wind resulting from the force of the hook. If that had hit her, her jaw would probably be in a mess now. Falling back away from Lightning, she steadied herself and glared at the woman who had dropped her bag pack onto the floor and went into a defense stance.

"Before you threaten someone, it's best you know who you're up against." Lightning said with threat audible in her voice. Needing to transfer to Gran Pulse was bad enough, she even prayed to the Maker that trouble would be the last thing she needs, but the Maker seemed to have ignored her prayers when she encountered trouble for the second time now. And this trouble was not going down easily, she was slightly surprised that the woman could avoid her hook with such little time, normally her hook would always catch someone square in the jaw.

Fang grinned dangerously at the shorter woman, "You want a fight eh? It's coming right up, just make sure you don't regret it for picking it with the wrong person." She said as she shifted into a fighting stance.

Upon hearing that, Lightning shifted into a more defensive stance, readying herself for an incoming attack.

Just when Fang was about to strike her first move, a voice came from the door and startled the two women. "What in Maker's name is going on?"

Lightning turned to the voice and found the voice to be the lady from earlier. Fang dropped her stance and with a sigh she greeted the lady, "Charlie, she-" she started halfway before being cut off by the lady.

"Fang, Madam Charlotte." She said with a stern tone as she held up a reprimanding finger at the tanned woman, "I was worried that you might cause trouble again so I came to check, turns out I was right. This girl just only arrived and you'd already started to pick a fight with her? You certainly broke the one day record." Charlotte said with frown.

Fang huffed, "Oh c'mon, she was the one who knocked me down onto the floor for suddenly barging in." she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

Lightning interjected, "I knocked."

"I didn't hear anything, perhaps you'd like to get something to eat first so that you'd have enough energy to knock louder?" Fang countered.

Lightning returned her glare at the woman and Fang glared back, causing the atmosphere to tense again but was quickly dismissed by Charlotte.

"Lightning, forgive Fang, she has some hearing problems. Fang, still you shouldn't start a fight right when you meet your new roommate." Charlotte raised a reprimanding finger at Fang again.

"Wha- No wait, I was not the one who started the fight! She swung a hook at me first!" Fang said with a tone of disbelief at being accused.

Charlotte looked to Lightning who merely looked away innocently, then back at Fang who was still hot on rage and gave her a doubtful look. _Really, Fang? _Her eyes narrowed with scrutiny.

Fang let out a sound of displeasure at the lady's distrust, sure she caused problems all the time chasing people out, but this time she did not started swinging fists first. "Look, she might look pale and innocent and weak but what, she can't be the one who started it first? Am I the only 'dangerous animal' lurking around here huh?"

Looking at Fang's way of voicing her displeasure, Charlotte gave her the benefit of doubt and turned back to look at Lightning, "Lightning, was it true that you swing at her first?"

As much as Lightning hated the tanned woman, lying was not an option, she hated lies. "Yea." She simply replied.

Charlotte sighed at the respond, "Alright, alright, I'm not siding anyone here, but surely you two are both at fault for almost getting into a fight here. You two can sort this out but without a fight, mind you. Fang, I doubt you need me to remind you that if this girl walks out again that you'd be expelled, right?" Charlotte placed her hands on her hips as she shot a look at Fang.

Fang groaned with displeasure at the reminder, she could use less of the constant reminders. Then, a thought hit her, just when she was about to voice her thought out, Lightning beat her to it.

"Madam Charlotte, can I switch rooms?" Lightning asked.

Fang was slightly happy at the woman's request, but her displease at her previous act was still hanging around strongly in her head. She looked to Charlotte with hopeful eyes wishing she would say yes, but only to be greeted with disappointment.

"No, you can't, we don't have any other rooms left and since you were the last to move in here, that's why you got this room. If you'd arrived a few days prior then you'd have ended up with someone else, we give out rooms on a first come first serve basis." Charlotte explained.

Lightning frowned and so did Fang, but Fang complained more, "Are you sure there are no more rooms left?" she questioned with a tone heavily laced with doubt.

"Unless you want to move out here and find somewhere else to stay, I'm sure there are plenty of rooms out for rent in the city. This applies to the both of you," Charlotte said as she pointed two index fingers from each hand at the two women, warning them, "If you two don't want to get kicked out for causing further ruckus, I suggest you two get along starting now."

Lightning's frown only deepened being bossed around especially by a Pulsian, but she knew that the lady was being fair at the very least and wasn't siding with the Pulse native, so she was not too bothered to be told off, but continuing to share rooms with this Pulsian over there was the main problem. Being greeted with egoism and rudeness on their first meeting pissed Lightning off, but she did not have the money to rent a place out in the city, so all she could do was nod at the woman's warning and comply with it.

Fang on the other hand merely let out an irritated sigh, she made a promise that she will never leave her younger sister alone, and she will keep it. Roughly scratching the back of her head with frustration, she nodded as well to indicate that she will comply with Charlotte's warning.

Charlotte smiled as she clasped her hands together, "Good, I'll be going now, you two be good with each other. And rule number 3, Lightning, no fighting."

*Flashback ends*

And that was how they ended up in this situation now.

As Fang turned around after putting away her clothes to look at her new roommate unpacking, she was slightly captivated at Lightning's back figure. It was not surprising, Lightning was an athlete from high school, and due to training for the past one and a half years in Bodhum had shaped her up considerably. Finding herself staring at the woman, Fang shook her head to dismiss the thought and mentally scolded herself for even dare to think that a Cocoonian was attractive. Though when she recalled her past Cocoonian roommates, none of them were as captivating as this one. Shush, she was thinking that again.

Sensing that she was being stared at, Lightning turned her head slightly and threw a sideway glance over her shoulder, catching Fang in the midst of shaking her head. Blinking a few times at the weird sight, she decided to just divert her attention back at unpacking her things. Lightning did not know much about Pulsians other than them being aggressive and rough, but it wouldn't surprise her if weirdness came with being attractive for Pulsians. As much as Lightning hated to admit it, she couldn't deny the fact that the tanned woman had the sort of exotic beauty that was thoroughly captivating. Frowning, she mentally scolded herself for thinking too much.

After Fang cleared all the remaining clothing and artifacts off her bed, she lied down with a loud, tired sigh escaping from her mouth. The woman stared at the white ceiling with nothing to do, then she began thinking. Since now this Cocoonian would be her new roommate and not like she could get away with it by chasing her out, she will need to at least establish a mutual understanding between themselves to smooth things out. Not that she didn't hate the woman already, she still hated the pink haired woman purely because she was from Cocoon, this was one hatred that had been planted in her heart since long, long ago. But still, they would need to establish an understanding somehow if they were to share the room.

Sitting up in her bed, she turned her attention to Lightning who was still unpacking. "Oy." She called out.

No response came from the other woman, so Fang tried again with a frown and slightly raised voice, "OY, YOU."

"Speak." Lightning replied with an annoyed tone.

Fang had a frown plastered on her face then, _Tch… trying to act high and mighty and all… _the woman thought to herself, unhappy at the commanding respond, "What, you weren't taught the right manners to speak with people back on Cocoon? So Cocoonians speak to people with their backs facing 'em aye? So much for manners." She spat with a displeased tone.

With a long, annoyed exhale of air, Lightning turned around to face the woman with a mirrored expression of Fang's, "Pulsians aren't bad too, they keep jumping into opportunities of arguments."

Fang inhaled deeply and exhaled, calming her inner turmoil at the woman's counter. "I'm not jumping into arguments with you."

"I didn't mention it was you, I suppose someone here knows what they'd done. Great job realizing that." Lightning said with a slightly triumphant tone at gaining the upper hand as she crossed her arms.

This was getting too much for Fang to handle, "Unlike a certain _species_ who doesn't know manners." She spat with a venomous tone, now she was ready for another argument.

Lightning jaw twitched with slight anger, it was not too long ago that they had just ended their 'welcome argument' with each other which_ almost_ leaded to a fight, and now they were at it again. She really wondered if she could put up with this woman for another one and a half years. With this thought in mind though, Lightning decided to at least maintain a neutral region between them, she didn't fancy coming back for arguments or fights every day after classes, it'd be utterly exhausting.

Sighing, she started, "I doubt you called me earlier just to start another fight?"

Fang was slightly taken aback at the respond, she expected the woman to shoot more _smart _remarks at her. Sensing that the woman backed down, she decided to calm down as well, better to avoid another possible fight after all. With an even tone, she started, "I wanted to talk about compromises between us, after all we'll be roommates."

Lightning nodded curtly, indicating for the woman to continue, so Fang did, "First, all the food in the kitchen is mine, you'll buy your own food. Second, what's mine is mine, what's yours is yours, I won't wander to your part of the room and you will do the same. Third, do not talk to me if there's nothing important." She finished with three fingers jutting out from her right hand as she counted the mentioned compromises.

The pink haired woman then spoke, "Fair enough, I wouldn't want to share anything other than the room. Fourthly," she stopped, gaining the attention of the Pulsian before she continued, "Do not get closer than 5 meters where you stand from me or else you're responsible for your own injuries." She finished before turning back to unpack her remaining things.

Fang pursed her lips at the last condition, "As if I'd want to get any closer to the likes of you."

Lightning simply uttered, "Good," before picking up her clothes and putting it away in the wardrobe.

XXX

Later in the morning around 10.30, Lightning left the room to attend the new semester's assembly starting at 11 for her course, unsure of the place and afraid that she would get lost in the huge university, she decided to leave earlier for the assembly venue. Fang was more than glad that she was left alone in the room after Lightning left.

Walking down the stairs, Lightning pulled out a map of the university she took from the dorm's office earlier from her jacket's pocket. She began reading the map but only to fall into the realm of confusion reading at all the weird symbols and drawings the map used, she could hardly point out any buildings. Why even print a map to confuse students she wondered.

When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she looked to the office and decided to ask for directions rather than depending on a useless map. She approached the door and knocked before entering after granted permission. Charlotte looked up from her paperwork and greeted the figure with a smile.

"Oh hello again, Lightning. Is there anything that I can help you with?"

Lightning nodded curtly, she wanted to start but before she could she was interrupted by Charlotte.

"Oh wait, don't tell me it's about Fang again?" a slight frown covered Charlotte's features.

Lightning shook her head, "No, I wanted to ask for directions. The map I took wasn't helping at all." She said as she raised the map that she held in her hand.

"Oh, okay no problem at all. So where are you headed?" Charlotte asked with a smile.

"Combat Assembly Hall." Lightning replied.

XXX

After Lightning left not too long ago, Fang finally got up from her bed and stretched freely, happy that she was alone again without the Cocoonian. Glancing to her clock on the study desk, she thought to herself that it was time that she got change into something decent for the assembly. After all, a tank top and a pair of short shorts for sleeping which almost representing her undergarment were hardly decent to be walking around in the public, needless to say the assembly. She'd probably get kicked out by the guards there if she were to go like this.

Striding to her wardrobe, she opened and revealed a few pieces of clothing hanging neatly on the horizontal metal bar whereas the rest piled up at the bottom of the hanging clothes. Grabbing one of the drawer's handle she pulled it open and then grabbed a set of unused undergarments to change into and took a set of clean clothes as well.

After taking a cold shower and drying off, she changed into the new set of clean clothes. Looking into the mirror at her reflection, she straightened her blue with golden stitched-sides traditional clan sari clad to her body and underneath she wore a pair of black slick shorts – longer than the previous pair – and a black body-fitting short tank top, showing her toned midsection. She smiled confidently at the sight, loving to see herself in her traditional garb.

Looking to the clock, she was left with about ten minutes to get to the assembly venue. With last few touches to her wear - she hated wearing her traditional garb sloppily -, she headed out of her room. Stepping out to the chilling winds, she enjoyed the feel of it brushing against her cheeks and revealed body parts. Surprisingly her body was always warm regardless the seasons, so dressing in her current manner was more than comfortable.

With confident strides, she began her walk to the Combat Assembly Hall.

XXX

After getting instructions from Charlotte, Lightning set out for the assembly hall that apparently was not too far off from the dorm according to the lady. Stepping into the chilly weather out of the dorm, Lightning pulled her crimson scarf higher to cover her already pinkish nose resulting from the frosty winds. Winter was not even here yet and her nose was already having trouble, she will definitely be needing to wear a warm nose guard when winter comes.

Following Charlotte's directions, Lightning moved out. After taking approximately ten minutes of walking windy paths and almost getting lost in a maze of hallways in the university's main building, she finally arrived at a spacious area with various buildings and drill training grounds out in the open air located at the inner part of the university. It appears that Combat Training buildings were all built pretty far in behind the main building. So much for 'not too far off' according to Charlotte, she thought.

Walking down the brick covered path, she found a sign board some distance from where she stood. When she got closer and looked at it, it appeared to be a directory board, though this time with clearer signs than the map from earlier which Lightning already crumpled it and threw it into a rubbish bin. Lightning examined the board closely and located the Assembly Hall to be the second biggest building to the classroom building. After locating it, the pink haired Cocoonian walked towards her destination.

Fang was walking down a muddy path which was a short-cut that she found somewhere behind the dorm to reach the Combat Training grounds when she first started her course here, walking such a long distance through the main building to reach the training grounds were not favorable for her especially she tended to sleep in most of the time, hence she often ended up late for most morning classes in the past. Now, she could avoid punishments for attending late.

After a five minutes walk through the muddy path in the woods, she finally arrived at the brick covered path leading into the CT training grounds. Smiling triumphantly, she continued to walk to her destination leisurely with time to spare. Halfway down the brick padded path though, her gut feeling tells her that something unpleasant was about to happen.

Lightning entered through the entrance into the hall filled with students, all seated at chairs lined up neatly by the staffs hours before the assembly started. Scanning the surroundings, she noticed that there were only two empty seats left at the last line while the rest were occupied. Making her way to the seat, something tells her that things will not be smooth.

Fang reached the hall and finally entered through the entrance just before the doors closed and left the hall in partial darkness with only some of the lights on in the hall. Looking for empty seats, her eyes dropped to an unoccupied seat next to someone who she couldn't register in the dark. Making her way to the seat in a hurry before the assembly starts, the unpleasant feeling multiplied.

True enough, both of their gut feelings were right, Lightning and Fang met each other. Fang hung her mouth open in disbelief at the coincidence, while Lightning stared at Fang with wide eyes filled with the same disbelief that Fang was experiencing.

After a while of staring in incredulity at each other, Fang still couldn't contain how _**"lucky"**_ she was since earlier this morning. Then Fang broke the staring contest and started first, her tone one of disbelief, "You're in Combat Training course…?" that would explain her precise hook from earlier though now that Fang thought about it.

Lightning merely looked away with a small huff, now that she thought about it, Fang did skillfully dodged her hook. What she couldn't believe was that they were actually in the same course, as if sharing the same room wasn't enough? Maker, luck sure was not on her side.

"Oy, don't ignore me." Fang said in the midst of quietness, only her voice sounded out.

"Quiet. And isn't it obvious enough?" Lightning spoke barely above a whisper and followed by an irritated sigh.

Fang dropped in her seat. And now all she could hope will be that she wouldn't end up in the same class as her tomorrow if that was not too much to ask from Lady Luck.

XXX

- Fang –

The next day after the assembly, it was time for regular classes and trainings to take place. Fang was in her course uniform seated at the back of her class, for the tanned Pulsian, getting into classes and listening to strategy planning with an army to lead was not her kind of her thing, she would rather just give the order to kill whatever seems hostile with whatever method will be enough to get victory. So it was only natural that she would be at the back of the class, dozing off on her desk while waiting for class to start.

The Combat Training course had a lot of students, so naturally that led to having a lot of classes too. Most of the course contained Pulsians while the remaining were Cocoonians, so in most classes there will always be a small number of Cocoonians and a larger number of Pulsians. In class, the Cocoonians will always be in their small group while the rest of the Pulsians mingled together, although on some occasions some Cocoonians who were arrogant but allowed to since they were qualified as strong and capable will rather be lone rangers than to mingle with the other fellow Cocoonians, just like a few of the Cocoonians that stood out with sheer power and abilities who were in Fang's class.

Fang was one of the strongest fighters back in Oerba with her capabilities handling a lance with ease and skills, so needless to say she was also in the top tier of skilled and powerful fighters in the university. The course had altogether 25 classes with each around 30 people, and had classified the first three classes into top tier classes while the remaining were classified into middle tier and low tier. Without a doubt, Fang was in the first class despite her poorer strategy planning.

However, though Fang was in a class with more Pulsians, she hardly get into any conversation with them save for the times when they approached her to ask some battle techniques and tips. The tanned woman actually hated some of the Pulsians, not for who they were but of their character, fake and always boasting around since they were in the top tier class. That was why she decided to stay alone in the class rather than to mingle with those fake and boastful idiots whose ranks were all below hers. The thought of as if those idiots could win her brought a smirk to her lips.

So that was what she thought, her new Cocoonian roommate had the 'lean and athletic' looks sure, but she doubted her skills. Besides, a fast hook didn't meant too much to classify her into the top tier classes and even if she was a top tier back in Cocoon, Fang had been strongly denying that she wouldn't be in her class. _I doubt she is _that _strong. _Was what Fang thought about since yesterday after wishing to Lady Luck that they wouldn't end up in the same class again.

Even now in her sleeping mind, she dreamt about praying to Etro regarding the matter. Yep, she hated the woman and her apparently icy, bitchy, and cocky attitude. At least some Cocoonian roommates from the past were afraid of her and paid her some respect.

But not this one, she even attacked her with a right hook.

- Lightning -

Lightning left much earlier today to arrive at the CT's office to get her uniform and to be informed of her assigned class. When she reached the office, she went to the reception counter and enquired about who she should see for such matters.

"Excuse me, I'm a transfer student, who should I see to get my uniform and be informed of my class?"

The personnel from behind the round desk looked up from his mess of paperwork and mumbled something quickly before rushing back to his paperwork.

Lightning could hardly hear his mumbled words, so she tried asking again, "Excuse me?"

The man mumbled under his breath impatiently while rummaging through his paperwork.

The pink haired woman was getting impatient at the constant mumblings where she couldn't hear a damn thing from the man, she didn't have the whole morning to deal with him, "Repeat." She said with a stern tone.

The man looked up with a scowl and repeated accordingly with raised voice, "INSTRUCTOR SAZH KATZROY."

Just when Lightning was about to grab the man from his collar and in an attempt to rip his tongue out due to his annoying performance, a voice sounded from a distance not far to her right.

"Someone called me I assume?" Sazh walked towards Lightning and the reception desk.

Lightning usually looked at someone's face first before wandering to other parts, but this time her eyes fell onto the man's black afro hair first before registering other features about the man. The instructor was apparently a black middle aged man with a height approximately half a head taller than herself, a medium build who donned a military style, dark green jacket with a black shirt underneath and wore a pair of light brown pants with military boots to finish the fashion.

The man halted when he reached the desk, then he glanced at Lightning's clenched fist and the slight frown on her face then to the receptionist's annoyed expression. With his hands held up at Lightning, he started with an easygoing tone, "Whoa, whoa, let's not break someone's nose here alright? Unclench your fist here, Farron."

Lightning spared a deadly glare at the receptionist who didn't know his death was only less than a meter away which was still donning an annoyed expression, then she reluctantly complied and released a huff. Sazh looked at the man then, "Roy, you must've gotten this lady here angry with your mumblings again, do me a favor to speak up if you don't want to lose your job as a receptionist." He said with a reprimanding finger held up.

The receptionist mumbled again before getting back to his paperwork. Sazh then turned back to Lightning and smiled at the woman, "Hello, you must be Lightning Farron I assume?"

Lightning was suspicious at how he knew her name, but nodded nonetheless, "Yes."

Sazh held out a hand for a handshake with the pink haired woman, "I'm Sazh Katzroy, one of the instructors here in CT course. I'd been expecting you for awhile now, it is a pleasure to finally meet the notorious top student of Bodhum University." He said with a smile.

Lightning stared at the hand a short while before taking his hand and gave a firm shake before releasing it, listening to the man speaking, he didn't speak with an accent, she was curious about his origin but she decided that could wait since class was starting in about thirty minutes. "Lightning Farron," she introduced herself again even though the man had already knew her, it was only appropriate manners to do so she thought, then she continued, "I'm here to collect my uniform and to be informed of my assigned class."

Sazh laughed at the stoicism, "Girl, you don't have to be so stern and serious, take it easy. Follow me, I'll get the uniform for you then I'll brief you with details." He gestured at the woman as he turned and began walking away with Lightning following behind.

They walked into a room which appeared to be a closet of uniforms. Sazh then approached the counter and gave the responsible personnel Lightning's size for him to get the uniform. The man disappeared into the racks of uniform and Sazh used the spare time to start briefing Lightning.

"So, from the report given by Bodhum University, I was told that you are the course's finest student with exceptional skills and speed huh, looks like it, even your name is Lightning." Sazh gave a smile but Lightning remained speechless, leaving Sazh in an awkward situation after attempting a joke, clearing his throat awkwardly, he continued, "So from that, you'll be joining the first class in the top tier, and I'm the instructor for your class."

Lightning nodded at the information, prompting Sazh to continue, "Also, you'd gotten your timetable, yes? I'll skip that part then. Now, I've got a few rules in my class to share with you, first, don't be late for classes, I'm very strict for punctuality even though I might sound all jazzy and easygoing like this," he raised a finger at Lightning before he continued, "Second, you've to attend all classes, if you skipped one without a reason you'll get a warning letter," the man raised a second finger from the same hand, "Thirdly, no fighting even though you're in the CT course, I know you're skilled and everybody else in the class is too, but you're not allowed to rip each others' throat just because you hate them for who they are or simply hate them due to face problem. Fighting is only allowed during combat training which will be held twice in a week, you can let out your grudge against that person then. Also, if you create troubles or cause a ruckus, your future report for recommendation will be risked, so it's up to you." Sazh finished with three fingers jutting out.

The pink haired woman nodded solemnly, the rules were not too difficult to follow, she had always been a morning person and she had no problem with morning classes, aside from that punctuality was her trait too. And for the second rule, Lightning highly doubted that she will actually skip any if there weren't anything important going on that will get her to skip, unless if something happened to Serah, which she quickly dismissed the thought. Finally, the last one was a bit tricky though, she could keep herself under control, but not if some nonsensical Cocoon-hating Pulsians come picking at her. Then the thought of her irritating, egoistical, argument-loving Pulsian roommate appeared, thinking about the third rule, her muscle tensed and she decided then that she probably need to work in tolerance or else she might eventually get into a fight with Pulsians especially her. Hopefully though, she will not end up with her in the same class.

Sazh sensed the woman's muscle tensed after he finished mentioning the third rule, with a faint smile, he continued, "You know, Lightning, it wasn't that hard trying to get along with Pulsians. Although you might find them intimidating at first, but over the time you'll realize that they are just like us Cocoonians, we're nothing too different, just humans really."

Lightning frowned at the instructor's comment, deciding to ignore the good comment regarding Gran Pulse natives. There was no way that Pulsians and Cocoonians were the same, Pulsians were aggressive, rage-filled, prone to violence and most of all –

Cruel.

Lightning will never forget how cruel the Pulsians were towards her family, her past a broken one due to their cruelty and violence. There was no way that the hatred for Pulsians in her will ease away even after a hundred years.

Sazh eyed the frown warily and figured it just as much that the woman was a victim from the Cocoon-Pulse war judging the way her muscles twitched and tensed, in her, he saw his past mirrored in her presence. Sazh was well into half of his lifetime, so his past experience at dealing with people and the time spent here in Gran Pulse had grant him a great deal of life experiences, and it was not difficult to notice how a person was affected by the past due to the war. With a small sigh, he continued, "I'm not saying that you should just get over what happened in the past, but over time you'll understand that not all are the same, Gran Pulse had just as much victims from the war as Cocoon." He spoke from his past experience and from facts, it was true that the war caused both nations an even deal of catastrophe.

The pink haired woman looked at the man with a frown and then uttered in a slightly angry tone, "You know nothing." then turning away to look elsewhere, tuning out what she had heard from earlier. She couldn't understand why a Cocoonian was standing at Pulse's side, again, it reminded her of Serah. How could they just forgive what the Pulsians did to them was beyond her understanding, but Lightning was sure of one thing, her hatred towards Gran Pulse and the people will remain in her.

XXX

The noise of people shuffling back to their seats in a hurry woke Fang from her morning doze on her desk, but she merely groaned at the noise and continued to get back into her sleep. Last night was a horrible night which caused her to be deprived of sleep this morning when she woke up with only little rest. Sharing rooms with a Cocoonian always caused her to be sleepless on the first night.

Then, the sound of doors sliding open reached Fang's ears and she knew that the instructor was in, but she ignore it nonetheless, since the instructor knew that she was always like this during strategy planning class.

Sazh scanned the classroom at the entrance and found that everyone was seated at their place, pleased at the view, he entered with a smile and gestured for the pink haired woman to enter into the class along with him. Sazh walked to his podium then stepped onto the platform with Lightning standing beside the podium. As she stood there, strangely the same disturbing feeling from yesterday came back.

"Good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to see you all in this new semester. And I've got a brilliant news to share with you all." Sazh announced.

The class was practically staring at Lightning than paying attention to Sazh, some of the guys were even ogling at her beauty regardless of where she originated, but some Pulsians were having scowls and frowns on their faces while the rest remained neutral. Except for Fang, who still was not paying any attention, contented to just sleep away, she doubted that the 'brilliant news' was anywhere close brilliant to them getting an extra week of holidays so that she could replenish her deprived sleep from yesterday.

Sazh scanned the classroom and noticed that most of them were not paying attention to him, so he clapped his hands loudly to divert their attention back to him before he continued, "Ah-hem, eyes here everyone. So, this brilliant news it that in this new semester, there'll be a new student joining us in this class."

Upon hearing that, Fang's eyes snapped open.

"And she is a transfer student from Cocoon."

Fang's eyes widened to an extent where it couldn't possibly be wider anymore, the same unpleasant feeling from yesterday started welling up in her gut.

"And her name," Sazh paused, waiting for everyone's eyes to gather at him once more before continuing, "Is Lightning Farron."

Fang's head immediately shot up, not believing what she had just heard with her ears. True enough, it was her Cocoonian roommate standing next to the podium where the instructor stood.

Lightning was looking at the far back corner of the class, trying to ignore the stares directed at her. And then, she saw the reason of her unpleasant feeling in her gut as a recognizable person's head shot up from the desk.

It was Fang. Again.

The moment Fang shot up, she met Lightning's gaze and then they both froze. Now, they were openly staring at each other wide-eyed, Fang agape while Lightning almost did the same, both undergoing the same strong sense of incredulity.

_Are you kidding me?_ They both bore the same thought in mind as they continued to stare on.

Sazh who caught the two locked in a stare with each other broke their gaze, "Hello? Lightning?" he waved a hand at the pink haired woman, finally gaining the woman's attention when she turned to her with the same shocked expression. Then, he looked to Fang who was still staring this way and back to Lightning, "Seems like you two know each other, great, you two will get along well then, you'll be taking the empty seat next to Fang at the back." He said as he pointed at the seat next to Fang whose expression changed into utter horror with her mouth hanging open widely.

Lightning wanted to object but before she could, Sazh urged her to her assigned seat, "Hurry on, we don't have all the time in the world, class is starting now." With that, the man put on a pair of classes and looked down at the books laid open on the podium's surface.

So now here they were sitting next to each other, both bearing the same scowl on their face. This remaining half year and the following were going to be one hack of a trouble-filled period.

* * *

**That was it, next chapter will be writing on improvements in both of their hatreds. R&R, thanks. **


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Okay, so you guys who are currently following this story are definitely in luck. I tried to study but I ended up coming up with this one chapter (I just couldn't resists the temptation of writing how they get on good terms so I can start writing them off as friends rather than enemies) and so here it is, the third chapter! Yep, seriously for the last time, this is the last chapter that I'll be posting for this week before going into a three weeks hiatus. Okay, talking less, reading more (it's a pretty long chapter so brace yourselves), enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of FFXIII. **

* * *

Put Your Trust In Me

Chapter 3 - Change

Almost a month and a half had passed since then, and thankfully Lightning and Fang had both been able to be under control instead of jumping into action at one another, though there was not much a need for them to since they merely ignored each other most of the time, and Lightning had been disappearing for the later evening everyday only to return with Fang soundly asleep. So that had avoided unnecessary fights for most part, making the past one and a half months peaceful.

For the past weeks, Lightning had been searching for part time jobs everywhere in the Central City only to return with failure. It wasn't that vacancies were hard to find in the big city, it was everywhere to be seen, but the main problem was getting one which will cause the pink haired woman least trouble. Imagine a Cocoonian treading in an area where they have to work for Pulsian bosses, it wouldn't be easy for one to go into the kill without risking getting abused either mentally or physically by said Pulsian boss during work. Either that, or Lightning personally found the job intimidating itself.

Lightning was not going to give up on looking for a part time job however hard it will be though, she needed the extra money after all. Albeit for her outstanding results, she had been granted scholarship to cover all her tuition fees and her stay in Paddra with an allowance as much as 1000 gils per month, but she had put the allowance aside to pay for Serah's necessary payables for the course for every new semester since the younger was not as lucky to get a full scholarship, so leaving her with zero allowance. It was a good thing that Lightning had been working in the past during her studies and saved up some extra allowance in her bank, or else she might have ended up starving to death in this foreign land by now.

The pinkette had tried out all possible spots in the Central City for part time jobs but ended with only failures so far, so she had no choice but to wander a little further to the suburbs by train. On her way there, she noticed a piece of poster pasted to the empty space of the train's sliding doors. Something about it gave her a strangely good feeling, so she went to take a closer look and found out that it was about a job vacancy at a seaside local coffee-bar, hiring a barista/bartender depending on the period of the day, aside from that it pays decently and the place appeared to be quite decent-looking too from what she could see from the poster. Besides, Lightning had experiences for one of the jobs mentioned, it would mean she will be with advantages tending to the job. Biting her lower lip, she decided to give it a try, no harm asking she supposed.

When she reached the bar, which was called 'NORA', she first scanned the surroundings around. After deciding that the place didn't seem too hostile to step into, she entered the crowded bar even when lunch time was way off and dinner was still not even close. Lightning carefully made her way through the crowd and finally reached the bar where a dark haired lady with revealing clothing tended behind the bar. When Lightning stopped in front of the busy bartender, the woman behind the bar looked up and smiled.

"What would you like, miss?"

Lightning shook her head before replying, "No, I'm not here for a drink, I'm here for the job vacancy."

The woman's eyes lit up, "You're interested in the job?" her voice hinted with excitement and happiness.

Lightning backed away slightly, somewhat taken aback at the tone, then she nodded and responded, "Yes…" _I think. _Lightning added in her mind, but she chose to be wise and kept the latter out of her reply.

The woman sighed with contentment before continuing, "I'd been waiting so long for someone to come and pick up this job, I'd really, really appreciate it to have a helping hand. Anyway, as you can see though I'm still a little busy at the moment, please give me some time to settle all these orders before tending to you again. Have a seat, please." She finished with a grin before getting back to her drinks.

After waiting for about twenty minutes or so, the woman was finally done and fortunately there were no incoming orders at the moment. Turning to Lightning who had chosen to sit at the far end of the bar, she moved to where the pinkette sat and started the job interview, or in Lebreau's head 'briefing about the job' would be more appropriate.

"Alright, let's begin. I'm Lebreau, the owner's daughter, but I'm more like the one in charge here really since my pops isn't really here all the time. And you are?"

"Lightning." The pinkette replied.

Lebreau nodded as she registered the name, "A striking name for a strikingly beautiful lady eh." She winked at Lightning, who tensed a bit at the suggestive manner. Then, she continued, "Alright, so tell me about yourself, do you've experience handling the bar?"

Lightning straightened herself before she started, "I worked as a barista back in Cocoon, though I didn't have any experience as a bartender for the night."

Lebreau arched both her eyebrows at the mention of Cocoon, "Oh, a Cocoonian." She said with a surprise-laced tone.

Lightning stopped and readied herself to be shot with hateful comments, but it never came. Instead, the dark haired woman merely smiled and continued, "I'm half a Cocoonian too, glad to meet someone from Cocoon, this bar here rarely gets any Cocoon customers and certainly not one who would come looking for a job, after all this is a local bar. And don't worry, I'm not one of those 'hateful Pulsians' if that was what you were thinking about when I mentioned Cocoon." Lebreau held up two fingers from each hand and mimicked double quotation marks at the mention of 'hateful Pulsians'.

The pinkette's eyebrows arched with surprise, she never thought she would meet a Cocoon-Pulsian in her life, guess Cocoon and Gran Pulse did had better days before the war. Not knowing what to say but awkwardly shifting in her seat, Lebreau continued, "I know what you're thinking, but before the war and way back when Cocoon and Gran Pulse were on better terms, it wouldn't be surprising to find a Cocoonian dating a Pulsian. My mother was a Cocoonian and she met my pops here, so they got married and then I popped out, a Cocoon-Pulsian." She pointed a thumb back at herself.

Lightning nodded slowly as she processed the information, not that it was important, but it was a habit to have information processed, though from this she felt a little safe if she were to work for a Cocoon-Pulsian, at least the woman probably wouldn't torture her if she were to get the job. After listening to what Lebreau had said, Lightning was still rendered speechless, even more so after the explanation actually, she was not expecting someone to tell her about their past straight off on their first meeting.

Sensing the pinkette's troubled feeling at a lack of speech, Lebreau continued with an awkward smile, "Sorry, I sorta strayed off. So where were we?" she asked with eyes narrowed in thought.

Lightning responded being the helpful one, "About I had experience as a barista but not as a bartender."

"Oh right, yea don't worry about that, I'll teach you all the necessary techniques as a bartender, never thought I'd get someone with the experience of a barista already, saved me half of the effort!" Lebreau beamed at the pink haired woman and offered a wink.

Lightning paused a little at the sentence, after her brain had repeatedly interpreting it carefully, she asked, "So I'm hired?"

Lebreau nodded happily, "Yep you're up for the job! Although, there's something that you might need to work on with this job." She added.

Lightning's ears perked up with attention, urging Lebreau with the solemn expression on her face to continue and the woman did after a chuckle, "Relax, it's nothing difficult. You're a woman of few words huh, though you might need to be a tad more sociable as a bartender at night you see, people tend to spill their sorrows and troubles with us, so you'll need to converse with them somehow." She explained with an easygoing smile.

The pinkette frowned a little at that, she did not expected the need to be sociable and especially in a local bar in Gran Pulse, meaning she will be needing to lend her ears to Pulsian AND talk to them even if she didn't wanted to.

Feeling that the woman was quite disturbed at the thought, Lebreau offered thoughtfully, "Or you can always just lead them to me if you really can't handle them, but sometimes I might be too busy with already too many on hands, so if you can I suggest you just listen and give occasional responses like 'hm' and 'Sorry about that' are good enough, they're often too drunk to catch what you were saying."

Listening to the woman's offer, she gave it a thought and nodded gratefully. This job was not too bad in Lightning's opinion, and the owner here seems considerate enough to offer her that. Although, looking at the dark haired woman's wear, she was a little worried at what she might need to wear during work.

Since the pinkette nodded, Lebreau continued with a smile, "It's really not that bad with Pulsians, most of them are respectful so they wouldn't do anything other than talk, although on some occasions there are drunkards who tend to lose themselves but not to worry, we've a skilled brawler in the house at night."

Okay, now Lightning was not too fond at the mention of drunkards. She wasn't sure if she could keep her job if some Pulsian drunkards did approach her with ill intention. Sure she can be cool and composed, but not when Pulsians tend to mess around with her. She disagreed at what Lebreau said regarding Pulsians can be respectful too, but on a wiser thought she kept it to herself, after all her soon-to-be boss was half Pulsian, she wasn't too sure if the woman will take in someone who was heavy with racism - yes Lightning was well aware of that -. Well, better to keep it to oneself than to end up throwing away a possible job that she actually considered good enough in Gran Pulse.

At the lack of respond Lightning gave, Lebreau continued, "I know what you're thinking, some are really troublesome too. And I get that you're more than disturbed at the thought since you're from Cocoon, but rest assure, before you can lay a hand on them and get into trouble with these customers, our trusted brawler will be on the job sooner than you think." She added a promising smile.

Getting so much assurance from the dark haired woman, Lightning was a little embarrassed herself for showing so many troubled signs, now she really didn't want to cause the woman any further trouble and certainly rejection will be a no, she could hold herself back for the gratefulness she held for Lebreau with all her offers and assurances. Finally, Lightning spoke up, "I'll do my best."

A grin crept onto Lebreau's face, "So you're cool with it huh? Good, about your wage, it's 1000 gils per month if you work night shift, extras will be added if you work morning shifts. Working hours will be from 10 in the morning to 4 or 5 to 11 at night depending on what shifts you are in, you'll get an hour rest for morning shift but for nightshift you get a short thirty minutes rest since the nighttime period will always be bustling with customers, but if you work two shifts in a day you'll get two separate breaks for each shift and an one hour break in between 4 to 5, we're closed during that one hour to get ourselves ready for the night shift. You're also allowed to take a day off once in a week as your rest day and we're closed on Sundays, so altogether you work 5 days a week." she explained with a hint of excitement.

"I'm a university student though, I can only work as a part-timer, is that okay?" Lightning queried, almost forgetting to mention this important point from all the chatters earlier.

Lebreau's eyebrows arched with slight surprise, "Oh you're a student too? Same as our brawler, she works for our nightshifts as a part-time brawler for some time now. So no worries, can you tell me your schedule now so that I can arrange it for next week's roster?"

Lightning gave it a thought for a few minutes before replying, "I'll need to take Mondays off, Tuesdays to Fridays I can work in nightshift while Saturdays I'm good with morning shift."

Lebreau nodded, marking that down mentally, "So that's your shift for the rest of the month I assume?" she confirmed with the pinkette.

"Yes, if there are any changes I'll definitely inform you."

The woman nodded with smile, "Alrighty, I'll see you on… next week's Friday night, since the first four working days next week there will be some small renovation going on, so we're closed during that period. And after that you'll follow the schedule that you'd given to me for the following weeks."

Lightning mentally noted down the information, and out of manners, she thanked the owner. "Thank you for offering me this job."

Lebreau laughed at Lightning's sincerity, "No, thank _you _for coming me, I really needed an extra helping hand desperately, I'd been going through hell for weeks now since the last one quitted."

Lightning arched an curious eyebrow at the woman, "Did something happen?"

The woman nodded before she continued, "Well you see, I'm not quite the 'friendly' type during work, and especially during work I tend to get a little grouchy with all the business. So this was what happened, that idiot wasn't following orders and was messing around, so I practically gave him the lecture of his lifetime and the next day he quitted."

The pinkette froze a bit, quite noticeably actually. Sensing the woman's stress, Lebreau waved a dismissing hand as she continued on, "I'm all nice and cool if my workers do their part, just don't get on my bad side for slacking off and I won't snap at you. I doubt you're the type to slack off, yea?"

Lightning shook her head, "No, I'm serious about doing my job right."

That earned another laugh from Lebreau, "Of course, of course, look at ya, with all the seriousness in the world pooling around ya. Lightning, right? Pleased to meet you, I can't wait to work with a pretty lady like you." The woman winked suggestively again and held out a hand for a handshake.

Lightning gulped slightly, wasn't sure how to react to the wink but she gingerly took the woman's hand and gave a shake before releasing it, "Pleased to meet you too. I should get going by now." she said as she stood from her seat.

Lebreau put on a look similar to a kicked puppy as she looked to Lightning longingly, "Aww, not going to stay a bit longer and get familiar with the surroundings first?"

Lightning was not blunt when it came down to flirtatious behaviors such as Lebreau's, she had plenty of experiences in the past back in Cocoon and sometimes it was so troublesome that it had her wishing she didn't look this good. Lightning was definitely not one to practice narcissism, but from all the past experiences, it was clear that she had to admit she did look good. Sighing at the woman's attempt to make her stay with those puppy eyes and pout – which she wouldn't give in unless it belonged to Serah's – she shook her head firmly, "No, I've some important things to settle." Which was true, she will need to phone Serah later and report to her about her job. This was one condition that they had established before Lightning came to Gran Pulse – she will need to report every action she took which was out of ordinary and daily activities. For example, getting a job.

Letting out a disappointed sigh, Lebreau gave Lightning a half smile as she waved goodbye, "Alright, I'll see you next week then, sweetie."

Turning on her feet towards the exit, Lightning quickly walked out of the bar then released a shudder and frowned at the woman's choice of words. Finally, today it seems that luck had found its way back to Lightning's side by getting her a job, but she was not too sure if her boss will be easy to handle with all the suggestive hints that she was getting. Maker sure wouldn't spare her perfect luck.

XXX

The past one and a half months had been peaceful for Lightning and Fang, but apparently the fragile peace was going to shatter into pieces today.

Tuesday was combat training for the two women's class, and Sazh had arranged for the students to take turns practice combat with a different individual each session. Lightning and Fang had both been avoiding each other in an attempt to prevent things from getting nasty, however today it seemed that they could not run from each other anymore since they had each practiced with all the other classmates except for each other. Fang had wanted to practice with someone else other than her and Lightning had requested the same thing, but Sazh will have none of it.

So, now here they stood in the middle of one of the combat practice ground, both glaring daggers at one another, neither making the first move as they sized up one another properly for the first time after they first met one and a half months ago. They had been in the glaring competition for more than five minutes now while the other students were having their own practices. Sazh caught the sight of them merely standing there and he sighed as he walked to their ground.

"What is the matter with the two of you? Quit glaring at each other and start practicing, y'all only have an hour with combat practice before moving to drills, so stop wasting time here and start practicing." Sazh commanded and then he walked away to another group to continue his inspection at his students.

After Sazh had walked away, Fang and Lightning returned their gaze back at each other before both their eyes turned cold at the sight of each other.

Fang being the more aggressive and talkative one out of the two, finally started their first conversation after the past one and a half months without any words being exchanged between the two during that period of time. With a huff, she started, "What's the matter with you simply standing there? Too scared to make the first move?" she said with a provocative tone out of her habit dealing with Cocoonians.

Lightning's left eye twitched, "Aren't you talking about yourself?" her tone laced with irritation.

The tanned woman gritted her teeth at Lightning's comeback, clenching her fists, she spat with a threatening tone, "You better don't regret for not making the first move when I gave you the chance."

Lightning eyed her fists warily and shifted her legs to a more defensive stance while her hands lay at her side on the ready to guard, "You're one to talk." She shot back with a tone just as dangerous accompanied by a scowl.

Fang returned the scowl with a snarl of her own before she rushed forward in a ferocious speed to strike her first attack at the Cocoonian. The tanned woman greeted Lightning with a right punch to her face and using that as a façade to keep her busy while she lay a real left body punch to the pinkette's side. Lightning was not fooled though, she saw the brunette's left body punch coming from below while the right approaching fast. With a swift dodge to the right while both her hands crossed guarded at the lower right side of her body, she successfully blocked the oncoming body punch from Fang. Using this instance, Lightning backed away quickly and countered with a high speed side kick aiming for the brunette's waist, which Fang barely avoided by jumping a couple of steps back.

Just when Fang had backed away a few steps, Lightning suddenly appeared in front of her again with blinding speed and immediately sent a left hook to Fang's opened side of her face. The Pulsian was not going down easily however, she was one of the few best fighters after all. Blocking the incoming left hook with her right hand, Fang aimed for Lightning's head and attempted to elbow it.

Living up to her namesake, she avoided it instantaneously by ducking low and rushed into Fang's stomach with her right shoulder, sending the two of them tumbling down onto the ground with a loud thud. Fang groaned as her back made contact with the hard ground below and the added weight of Lightning's was not helping. After they both tumbled to the ground, Lightning was the first to recover and she straddled Fang's waist in an attempt to keep the woman down while she rain down punches at her. But on the other hand, Fang was not going to let that happen as she recovered just fast enough from the fall right before Lightning could rain down hell on her face. And then using every ounce of her strength, she raised her upper body in a swift movement and head bumped the pinkette's forehead, causing the woman to fall back and off of Fang.

Holding onto her aching forehead, Lightning sent a deadly glare at the woman who was getting up slowly, now her anger was triggered by the pain and it started boiling in her, and not to mention the hatred that she had for the brunette since day one added oil to her burning fire.

There will be no point of return now.

Fang got up slowly with the help of one hand onto her feet while another hand clutched at her stomach, the shoulder rush from earlier caused her a great deal of pain and the fall from earlier was not pleasant at all to her back. Now Fang was angry, her anger boiling along with the hatred that she had harbored and her hurt pride of being pushed down by the woman in front of her, causing her eyes to turn dark with a dangerous gaze. She was being easy on her earlier, but now she will get serious.

There will be bloodshed, Fang promised that.

After a moment, the two rushed at each other again. In the heat of the battle, Lightning had managed to land down several elbowing and furious punches to Fang's head and chest while Fang had sent a powerful uppercut at Lightning's chin along with a knee kick to her stomach, revenging her stomach from the shoulder rush earlier. After a good fifteen minutes, both women were staggering away from each other with dark blue bruises already forming around their faces, leaving a distance in between them to catch some much needed rest.

Lightning was breathing heavy, in her haste of gasping for needed air she tasted metal in her mouth, spitting out onto her palm and she was right that it was blood pouring from an injury in the mouth resulted from the uppercut earlier. Lightning clenched her hurting jaw as she wiped the blood away from her palm and clutched at her hurting stomach from the painful kick she received as she glared at Fang with multiplied hatred and anger visible in her murderous turquoise eyes.

Fang was not doing much better than Lightning either, her chest was stinging madly in pain like it had been continuously stabbed with a round, thick stick, except it was replaced by fists. Her head was in a pretty bad condition too from constantly getting elbowed at the temple and a punch which caught her nose got her bleeding as well. Wiping the flowing blood away from her nostrils, she flared her nostrils angrily and droplets of blood dropped to the ground. Then, gritting her teeth she glared at Lightning with multiplied anger and murderous intent evident in her dark jade eyes.

When they were about to jump at each other again, Sazh finally appeared and put a stop to the brutal fight between the two. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! I said practice, not kill each other!" he said with a mixed tone of shock, concern and disbelief as he held up both hands, one each directed at each woman to indicate them to stop.

Lightning was not too pleased at being stopped, she still wanted to beat the crap out of the Pulsian, but a warning look from Sazh kept her from it and she controlled herself, she wouldn't want her report to get scratched due to something like this.

Fang was definitely more than discontented to be stopped before she was contented with beating the woman until she was laying motionless on the ground, but the same warning look from Sazh which was given to Lightning earlier had made Fang to hold herself back, trouble with the instructor and his punishments was the last thing she wanted in this current aching state.

After putting a stop to the fight and the two had calmed from their hikes of boiling anger, the instructor looked at them disapprovingly, "You two are banned from combat training sessions for the next two sessions." He said with the same disapproving tone with a sigh, shaking his head he continued, "Look at yourselves, what a mess. I doubt you two can continue to the drills looking at the conditions you two are in, both of you are dismissed for the day, get yourselves to the infirmary and get patched up before going back to rest." He said with a fatherly tone.

Fang was extremely glad to be dismissed from the next session of drills with all the aching, but Lightning was not quite glad, her favorite session was the drill course, but judging from her current condition she might just ended up as a waste on the ground during the drills, so she had no choice but to give up for today's session.

After the two women visited the infirmary, they went back to their room, not a word was being exchanged by either party, which was probably sensible for the both of them to do so especially Fang. Lightning was not ready to get into another fight if the other woman sprouted another word which will trigger her anger again.

With muscles aching and painful injuries, the two made a wise decision to just return to their bed and lay there for the day to get their much needed rest for recovery to take place.

XXX

Later into the evening on that same day, Lightning woke from her sleep due to the pain in her jaw. Groaning, she struggled to push herself up which was currently a very, very difficult thing to do with all the pain in her stomach and muscle aches, the aftereffect seemed to have taken place during her sleep. After a long and painful struggle, she was finally up sitting in her bed. Glancing to her left at her Pulsian roommate who was still sleeping, she frowned at the sight. _I should have hit her harder so that it would be difficult for her to sleep laying her head down… _Lightning thought to herself, mentally cursing at the sleeping woman. Shifting her legs to the ground, she pushed herself up from bed with shaky hands, opting to take a cold shower which might ease away some of the pain.

After Lightning disappeared into her bathroom few minutes later, Fang woke from her sleep with the pain in her head disturbing her. Then, she registered the water running which came from the pinkette's bathroom. Scowling awkwardly and painfully, she mentally scolded herself, _I should've kicked her harder, now she could still get up and take a shower while I've trouble with even scowling… _followed by several vulgar curses which were performed mentally.

Suddenly, a knock on the door was heard and a familiar voice came to Fang's ears, "Fang! Are you in there?" the voice called out.

She recognized the voice as Vanille's. Groaning, she replied, "Can I say no?" she really, really didn't want to get up at the moment.

"No! Let me in, I've something for you!" Vanille squeaked at the other side of the door.

Sighing exasperatedly, Fang forced herself to – painfully – sit up in her bed. Just when she was about to get off the bed with shaky legs, Lightning came out from the bathroom and saw Fang, which then scowled awkwardly at her.

That earned a mental smirk from Lightning at the sight, considering she seemed to have done a good job in cracking the brunette's head. Then, a knock sounded again, causing Lightning and Fang to turn to the door.

"Fang! Open up!" Vanille yelled.

Fang wanted to get up and open the door, but the moment she stood her stinging head forced her back down onto the bed, a hand came to rest on her hurting temple and a pained expression donned her face.

Surprisingly, Lightning's mental triumphant smirk was gone when she saw the pained expression. Frowning at herself, she might have went a little overboard for continuously aiming for the head earlier, though she hated the woman simply for being a Pulsian and also for her aggressiveness and rudeness from their first day meeting, she felt a tad guilty at it, maybe the woman didn't deserve this much. Seeing the woman was in so much pain, her shoulders slumped slightly with sympathy and decided to help the woman out by opening the door.

Fang saw the action taken by Lightning and to be frank, she was surprised that she would help open a door meant for her, the past one and a half months the pinkette had been ignoring any calls from the other side of the door if it was for Fang. There was this one time when Fang was taking her shower and Vanille had been waiting for her outside for about 15 minutes simply because Lightning paid no attention to it. So to say she was not surprise when Lightning headed for the door, she would be lying. And frankly, she was a tad grateful, though her anger was still there but it had eased a little for the pinkette's consideration.

When the door clicked open, Vanille was already on a rant assuming that Fang was on the other side of the door, "Hmph, what took you so-" but her rant stopped the moment the door revealed Lightning who was the one who opened it, and the woman's face was bruise battered too. Awkwardly smiling, she greeted the pinkette, "Er… H-Hi."

Lightning simply nodded in the direction of the room to gesture the red head to enter, which Vanille obediently complied without a second of delay. The pinkette then closed the door and headed back to her bed. Now that she had taken a cold shower, her aching had eased away considerably, but the pain in her stomach was still wrecking and it was obvious from the expression on her face as she slowly sat down onto her bed.

Noticing the expression Lightning had, Fang thought of the same thing, maybe she had kicked a tad too hard, after all it was only practice. But things got out of hand because both of them didn't hold back anyway, so Fang placed half the blame on herself and half on the pinkette, although she probably didn't deserve so much from her.

Vanille then pulled a chair from Fang's study desk and sat beside Fang's bed with a mixed horrified and worried look on her face, "Oh my, Fang, your face… it's terrible…" she said with a concern, sisterly tone.

Lightning's guilt increased a little at the tone.

Fang forced a chuckle, "What, you're saying that I'm no longer attractive? You're talking like my face was being hit with a train."

Vanille frowned at Fang, "Fang, I'm not kidding… Sigh, who did this to you?" she asked, not knowing that the creator of Fang's masterpiece was only lying behind her not more than 10 meters away.

Fang arched an eyebrow at the red head, it was a good thing that her eyebrows were still free to move, so it was convenient for Fang to shoot a look saying '_really?' _at Vanille.

Vanille returned a look of puzzlement, "What?" she asked innocently.

The tanned woman shook her head at her sister, "How'd you know I was injured anyway?"

"I got the news from a friend who helps out in the infirmary." Vanille explained.

"And you can miss out half the news? Great job, Van." Fang chuckled.

Vanille huffed, "Hey, the moment I heard you were injured I ran off already trying to see how you were, so I didn't get to hear that remaining half!"

Fang snickered softly, frowning a little at the pain in her nose, then she continued, "So what even if you know who did this to me?"

"I'll help avenge you!" she said with a matter-of-factly tone, striking a heroic pose with both hands on her hips.

Lightning shifted a little uncomfortably in her bed.

Fang could not help but laugh at the silly red head even though it pained her to do so, "I doubt you can. And don't worry, I got her back too." She said with a smirk, glancing over Vanille's shoulder to Lightning's back figure which shifted a little uncomfortably.

Vanille gasped in surprise, "It's a girl!? There's a girl in this university which can get the notorious Fang in this state!? I expected it to be a man thrice your size!"

Fang shook her head, "In fact, the person who got me ended up this way was only lying in bed not far behind you." She gestured at the figure behind Vanille.

Vanille froze in her spot upon hearing that, now she dared not look back over her shoulder after what she just said, afraid that the pinkette was up and ready to fight her. Meekly, she started, "Well… I guess I'm not strong enough to avenge someone who got you like this too by the way, so don't keep that in mind, Fang, I was just kidding." The girl forced an awkward smile, she was actually directing that sentence at Lightning though.

Lightning relaxed a little in bed, she was not afraid to take up a fight against the red head, but certainly not in her current condition. Besides, if the red head were to challenge her, she really needed to consider if she could actually fight against someone who seemed so much smaller in frame than her, she would definitely feel bad about laying a finger on the red head even if it was for self defense. It didn't matter if Vanille was a Pulsian, Lightning's hatred was not great enough to the extent in picking someone much weaker than her, it will just be against her character.

Fang laughed at her sister, "I never really bothered with what you said, as if I'd let you running into someone this dangerous." She said while pointing at herself which was covered with bruises.

Lightning tensed a little in bed, that mouth just had to run and go slipping away something that will get her provoked. _As if she was not dangerous herself, _Lightning thought to herself, she had to admit Fang was a really skilled fighter, the woman had so much strength and power which made up for the lack of speed, but not like she would admit it aloud to a Pulsian.

Vanille huffed, "Yea, yea, stop running that big mouth of yours. Here, I've got something for you, it aids in healing your injuries." The red head handed a jar of bright green jelly-like solution.

Fang eyed the color warily, "What's this?"

"It's a potion made from the herbs I collected, it'll speed up your recovery for sure." The red head said confidently.

Fang looked up with a slightly worried expression, "It's not something to swallow right…?" she asked with a worried tone, she was not ready to go and simply swallow some weird solution made by Vanille again after one experience that she had in the past. It caused to purge for almost a week straight.

Vanille shook her head, "No, it's to apply to your wounds, it gives you a cooling sensation. Here, I'll help you apply it, hold your clothes up." She said opening the cap of the jar and dipped her fingers into the greenish jelly-like solution.

Fang gawked at the red head, "No way, not here." She objected, unwilling to expose her bruises while Lightning was still in the room, she didn't want the woman to see how bad the bruises were, afraid that she would mentally mock her. Although the woman probably already had.

The red head huffed, "Why not? Not like anyone's looking, come on, hurry up."

The two struggled against each other but eventually Fang gave in and Vanille succeeded. While the two were busy with each others' presence, Lightning stole a glance over her shoulder at the sisterly sight.

The sight actually reminded Lightning of Serah back in Cocoon. When they were younger, Serah often got bullied due to her less threatening aura. The younger Farron was soft and gentle, so she either got bullied or got adored by those silly boys which were slightly older than her, chasing after her to get her heart. Lightning will always be there to defend Serah from the bullies, being the stronger one she will always fight off the idiotic bullies picking at Serah, and the bullies often ended up eating mud on the ground. For those love-struck boys however, Lightning will also give them a lesson good enough to make them stay away from her innocent and naïve younger sister for the rest of their lives. So, it was a normal sight to see Lightning getting hurt everywhere most of the time and that Serah will always be there to care for her sister's injuries after those fights. Serah had always insisted in helping Lightning to tend to her injuries while Lightning struggled to get away, unwilling to be tended to but she always ended up giving in to the younger Farron's gentleness and persistence.

Just like the two Pulsian sisters at the moment, the sight reminded Lightning so much that it made her missed her sister so much more in her current condition. Then, the conversation from the instructor on her first day before class reappeared in her head.

_Although you might find them intimidating at first, but over the time you'll realize that they are just like us Cocoonians, we're nothing too different, just humans really._

Turning away from the sight, something tugged at her heart as she recalled that sentence, but she dismissed the thought in an attempt to disapprove it, but then another came into her mind.

_Over time you'll understand that not all are the same_

Lightning frowned, why was she thinking about all these now? She just had a fight with a Pulsian which had her aching all over her body, and this was what kept appearing in her mind's eye. Sure she saw the more loving sisterly sight showed by the two Pulsians earlier, but that wouldn't mean that Pulsians had changed their violent ways. Her heart was tugging at something that she couldn't understand.

Then, another thought came.

_Gran Pulse had as many victims as Cocoon _

Lightning frowned more at the thought, she knew, she knew this all along that the war had dealt equal blows to both nations. But she could never bring herself to forgive what the Pulsians had done to them, to her family, to her parents. Even if the hatred were to fade one day, she doubted she could ever forgive them.

Sighing, she closed her eyes and tried to get some sleep. Then, another thought came again. Though this time it didn't belonged to any of the conversations she had with anyone, but from her conscience.

_Maybe that Pulsian… had the same experience. Which was why we hated each other so much in the _same way_? _

Lightning's eyes snapped open, she was shocked at herself to say the least. It didn't matter if she was tired, in the past no matter how tired she was she wouldn't allow herself to wander into that area. How could she find her conscience agreeing that Cocoonians and Pulsians were the same? Pulsians… they were not humans, and they were cruel beasts to her, they were not the same, this was what she had always planted in the depth of her heart. She must have hit her head too hard from the earlier fight. Groaning loudly, she mentally cursed the woman for it.

Although, no matter how much Lightning tried to push the weird feeling in her heart away now, the feeling just continued to tug at her, reluctant to be pushed away. Something was definitely going wrong in her head, she thought, utterly disturbed at the feeling tugging at her heart.

Fang and Vanille looked to the groaning woman, then the tanned woman whispered to Vanille, "Hey… maybe you could offer some of this stuff to her. I might've overdone it a little…" she whispered barely above her breath, she didn't want the other woman to hear her.

Vanille looked to Fang with a surprised expression, then her face turned into one which donned a warm, knowing smile, "Why don't you offer her yourself?" she said softly.

Fang looked at her with disbelief, "Are you kidding me? No way." She whispered back.

Vanille mentally sighed at the woman's stubbornness, she was well aware that Fang had this big ego problem in her, which was also one of the main problems that prevented the woman from letting go the hatred in her heart. Knowing Fang will not do it herself, Vanille assisted Fang in performing her kindness towards the pinkette.

Although, it was not an easy task, Lightning was a frightening person to Vanille, the red head could still remember the scary glare that she had received when she had stepped into her 'region'. Gulping, she started timidly, "Erm… L-Lightning…?"

- Silence -

Vanille turned back to Fang and she shrugged helplessly, Fang could only slumped her shoulders slightly with disappointment that she could not repay the Cocoonian's kindness from earlier, in spite of everything she didn't want to owe Lightning a favor, but apparently repaying the favor will have to wait.

XXX

A few days had passed since the big fight, and today it was Friday. Though her injuries had recovered for most part and the aches in her muscles were mostly gone, the faint blue-black bruises that remained on her face were hardly a good impression on her first day for work. Hopefully, Lebreau wouldn't kick her out looking at her bruise-battered face for scaring away customers but on second thought, she doubted Pulsians would be afraid of mere blue-black bruises, they were more than capable in generating scars after all.

Lightning was walking down a quieter part of the suburbs, this was a shorter route she found which would also lead her to the bar. The surroundings around her were not very pleasant to be around with all the tumbled garbage cans and rubbish spilling at almost every corner if not all, it was dirty and the buildings around held a gloomy feeling with its paints peeling off the walls after years of wear. Walking down a quiet and dim street with the sun setting, Lightning's awareness hiked considerably, being cautious at any possible hostility that might approach her in the quieter street behind the main streets' buildings.

As she continued her walk, she heard a loud scream all of a sudden and the voice apparently belonged to a child. Widening her eyes with shock and surprise, the first thing she registered in her mind was that someone was in trouble, and nearby. She hastened in her footsteps down the street following the direction of the scream which was at it again as she scanned her surroundings.

After passing a couple of blocks, she turned to the back alley between two buildings and found the source of the cry. A young boy with ragged and dirty clothing was clutching something near to his chest while three men easily thrice his size cornered him, the tallest of the men standing threateningly before him while two other cracked their knuckles, seemingly ready to give the kid some unnecessary injuries. Lightning continued to eye them warily, not wanting to jump into a conclusion too fast but it was concluded that the three men were being violent to the kid as the tallest man gave the kid a backhand across his face, causing the boy to tumble onto the ground with a loud yelp and one of the men kicked at the boy brutally.

It didn't occur to Lightning where this kid originated, but all she knew at the moment was to interfere them or else the kid's life might be in danger. Sprinting with all her power gathered at her heels, she rushed towards the men despite the pain which reminded her of the fight few days back which had yet to fully recover.

With blinding speed, Lightning approached one of the men from the back and sent a flying kick right to the back of his head, the force powerful enough to knock down the man and consequently passing out. Lightning landed gracefully in front of the boy and immediately went into a protective stance as she glared dangerously at the two remaining men which were almost twice her size. _One down, two to go. _

The assumed leader of the three was shocked with Lightning's sudden appearance and he backed away when he saw one of his underlings had fallen with just one kick. Gawking at the pinkette with an expression of mixed disbelief and annoyance, he started, "Who the hell are ya?"

Lightning didn't bother replying, but instead, she warned them with a tone cold as ice, "None of your business, I believe you've the boy's stuff, return it now and then walk away if you don't want trouble."

They could have walked away unharmed, but instead they chose to mess with the woman due to their stubbornness and egoism. "Ha! As if I'd listen to a mere Cocoonian and a woman at that! YOU should be going off now if YOU don't want to join the boy on the ground." The man emphasized on the word while pointing a provocative finger at Lightning.

Lightning swore that finger will be broken for sure. "Suit yourself." She simply uttered before dashing forward at the man and grabbed the provocative finger then twisted at it, causing the man to kneel in pain as he yelled agonizingly. The other man then rushed at her and decided to greet her with a punch – which Lightning would consider it as a useless swing of hand instead of punch – but Lightning had plenty of time to dodge and then returned a precise swift left hook to the man's jaw followed by a side kick to his waist, sending him flying in the opposite direction.

Then she returned her attention to the man kneeling in pain, she continued to twist the man's finger and slowly folding it outwards from his palm, painfully, until his remaining fingers holding onto the ragged pouch which belonged to the boy fell from his hand. After that, Lightning had no intention of sparing his finger, since the Pulsian loved to point his bloody finger so provocatively at people, she decided that it would do him some good not being able to do that anymore. Lightning abruptly folded the finger outwards until a snap was heard and the man screamed in pain. After that was done, Lightning gave the man a few strong kicks to his stomach, knocking the air out of his lungs and enough to make one pass out before sending him flying off into a distance.

Picking up the ragged pouch, she dusted the dirt of it as she stood and then turned to the boy who had managed to stand on his feet. Lightning walked to the boy and handed the pouch back to him.

Just when the boy was about to retrieve his pouch, his eyes widened with shock and he screamed "LOOK OUT!", causing Lightning to turn her head just in time to catch a glimpse of the man who she first attacked with a wooden stick in his hand already coming down on her.

Unfortunately for Lightning, she could have dodged the surprise attack but she didn't as it would definitely be the young child who would be taking the force in her place. So instead, all she could do was guarding the back of her head with both hands clasped tightly behind and using her body to shield the boy from any possible force with her back curved outwards and all muscles tensed as she went turgid, readying herself for the inevitable force.

It seemed that today, luck was on her side. As the wooden stick made contact with her upper back, it broke, causing the force received by Lightning to be reduced to half and the jacket that she wore granted her an extra layer of protection too. It appears that the stick was already rotten deep into the core that it had simply broke into pieces with the force clashed against her back, although it still hurt nonetheless. With the pain stimulating her body to pump the extra adrenaline, the pain had currently eased off enough for Lightning to counterattack even after the assault.

With adrenaline fueling her throughout the body, she turned to glare with murderous intent at the man who tumbled backwards and fell to the ground in his haste to escape. Using this opportunity, she rushed forward and sent a powerful knee kick right into the man's face, then a sound of something cracking could be heard, probably his nose broke. Finally, the man fell off onto the ground with his face now a nasty mess, it would probably cost the man quite a fortune to get his face back into shape.

Scanning the surroundings, Lightning made sure that all three men were finally down. Once that was made sure of, the adrenaline which previously fueled her body seemed to have faded as the pain at her upper back returned. Gritting her teeth, she slowly moved a hand to her painful right shoulder which was also injured from the earlier assault. _Great… a new injury to recover from. _Lightning mentally sighed at the thought.

Sound of shuffling can be heard from the back and Lightning turned around to the boy who had a concern look on his face. The young boy asked timidly, "A-Are you okay…?"

Lightning nodded betraying the pain that she currently felt. Then, she asked the same question, "Are you hurt?"

The boy shook his head, "No, I'm fine thanks to you, lady." He smiled innocently.

"You're welcome." Lightning replied.

"I'm really thankful for your help, lady. If it wasn't for you, the money that I'd worked so hard to feed my family back home for a month would have been all gone…" the boy said with a grateful smile as he clutched the ragged pouch closely to his chest.

Lightning arched her eyebrows with surprise upon hearing that, "You… worked for it?" she said with surprise laced in her voice.

The boy nodded, "Yes, my parents died a long time ago due to the war, so it's only left with me, my younger sister and my granny now. I'd been working for some time now since my granny couldn't anymore." He explained.

Lightning suddenly felt sorry for the boy, she could totally understand the boy's feelings at the loss of his parents and the desperate need to work for money to support the family, she had almost the same past except she was a bit luckier to work in a more protected environment. The pinkette knew that the boy could recognized her as a Cocoonian with her outstanding features, so she was about to leave before anything else happened but was then stopped by the boy.

"You know, I always thought Cocoonians were scary and the way granny told me about your people was really terrifying. But on other hand, I'd always find myself disagreeing with her in my head too, I know that Cocoonians are probably not that bad… we're all just mere humans, so I could understand why Cocoonians did what they'd done in the past during the war to protect themselves… just like us Pulsians did against Cocoonians, it was… a natural act humans had against danger after all. Though I always just keep the thought to myself, but today I can definitely tell granny that Cocoonians aren't all the same with proof." He said with a wide grin.

Listening to the boy talk, she couldn't bring herself to believe that she was listening to such a young kid talk with apparently such thorough understanding, it was almost like she was talking to a wise old man who had had lots of past experiences in his life. But perhaps she knew in the back of her mind that she had knew that all along but she just didn't want to agree with it, she knew that the child was not blinded by pure hatred unlike her, which was why Lightning could not bring herself to agree it due to her hatred since the incident 9 years back. But now, she felt utterly embarrassing at herself for acting even worse than a kid.

Maybe today after listening to the boy's reasoning, her hatred might somehow find a way to ease off bit by bit. Maybe, she could start off slow.

The boy continued with Lightning's lack of speech, "So, I want to thank you again, lady. Although there wasn't much that I could offer in return…" his tone dropped to a tone similar to a kicked puppy.

Lightning quickly dismissed the boy's thought, "It's okay, I don't need anything in return. Just stay out of the quiet alleys will do me a favor."

The boy looked up at Lightning and beamed at her, "Thank you, lady, you're like a sparkling Goddess to me." The boy smiled gratefully.

Lightning awkwardly looked away, feeling that a blush had tinted her cheeks at the comment, "You should get going now." she muttered hastily.

The boy nodded happily and said "goodbye!" before he left, leaving Lightning there seeing the boy set off with a faint smile.

After the boy left, she continued her walk to her workplace with a sore upper back. Along the way, she thought about what the boy had said and she repeated it in her head again.

_Not all are the same huh… _Lightning thought to herself as a faint smile tugged at her lips, then she recalled the conversation that she had with her sister on the train.

_Lightning, the past is something that you cannot change, and the hatred you bear will only hold you back. Instead of constantly breeding hate because of what happened in the past, why don't you try letting go the hatred in your heart and start anew? Aren't you tired for holding a grudge after so many years? If you just give it a try, you'll realize that living without the grudge that you kept holding onto will be such a load off your shoulders._

If Lightning recalled this before the one and a half months here, she would definitely be absolutely disapproving against her sister's advice. But now, after what she had just heard from the young boy whose past was just almost the same as hers, she was not quick to deny it, though she did not totally agreed with it yet, at least now she would give it a thought. Serah was right, holding a grudge for so long was not at all comfortable for one to bear, but it was impossible for Lightning to just let go all at once and forgive the Pulsians. Maybe she wouldn't forgive them completely, but she could at least manage her hatred against them, it was just like Serah said, why live with a grudge while you could live a carefree live? Lightning had found herself starting to agree with Serah about the latter, albeit late, but it was better than never realizing it. At least starting now, she could let go of her hatred bit by bit.

_Perhaps I could listen to Serah once in a while… Maybe she was right, I was a little stubborn. Perhaps it's about time I change my point of view. _

XXX

Fang was on her way to her workplace only to suddenly hear a child's desperate scream for help which alerted her. Rushing to the source of the scream, Fang stopped a far distance from the absolutely interesting yet _surprising_ scene exchanged before her eyes.

She recognized the pink hair, not much people around here in Gran Pulse bore the same special tone of strawberry-blonde hair, and the only one she knew of was none other than her Cocoonian roommate – Lightning, who was currently in the midst of fighting off three men while a child laid there on the ground.

Fang watched the whole thing unfold before her eyes, she wanted to help, but apparently the pinkette did not need any as she was fending off just fine, she figured the poor men needed more help than her. As she watched on how Lightning fought with blinding speed, she couldn't help but went 'whoa' at the scene. During the fight few days back, she was too busy blocking hits to her head to see how Lightning fought and held herself, but now from afar she could see how elegantly yet deadly in the way she fought. Although she was aware that she was mentally complimenting her, but she couldn't bring herself to deny those compliments, after all it were facts, and Fang was one to agree with facts _if_ it were laid out before her eyes, just like now.

The tanned woman continued to watch until Lightning had downed the two men then went and picked up the ragged pouch and dusted it before she handed it back to the boy. It was a refreshing sight to see the woman being so caring towards another, usually all she could see from the woman were scowls and frowns, which she understood since she was the same.

Then something horrible happened, the first fallen man that Lightning had kicked at the back of the head got up and grabbed a wooden stick then rushed at Lightning who was not aware. Fang immediately started to run there and stop him but with her speed it would still be too late with this distance. Damn, she should have gotten closer, she cursed at her inability to help the Cocoonian now.

Then, a shocking sight halted Fang in her haste.

Fang watched as Lightning shielded the boy with her body while bracing herself for the assault. Fang had fought with the pinkette before, so she knew what her speed could do, she could have just dodged the attack and it would be the Pulsian boy to be in her place. But instead, the woman who apparently hated Pulsians, had protected the young boy from the assault with _her _own body acting as the shield. This action definitely stunned Fang to the extent that it halted her in her steps, she was half expecting her to move away and let the boy take the hit, but she was wrong, very wrong.

The tanned woman continued to watch as the hit landed on Lightning's upper back and broke away into pieces. Then, Fang looked on as the woman turned and counterattacked the man, and the poor fellow's face will definitely be a mess after that knee kick Lightning sent him. After that, the pinkette and the boy seemed to be having a conversation, but Fang was too far away to hear, though it must be something nice since the boy was smiling and beaming at the pinkette.

And surprisingly, Fang caught Lightning smiling faintly at the boy as he left the scene too. Later, Lightning left accordingly as well.

Once the whole scene exchanged was over and Lightning was gone, Fang continued her walk to her workplace. Along the way, she had thought about the incident from earlier and it was definitely shocking to say the least. She had never expected her apparently cold, bitchy and arrogant Cocoonian roommate to jump into action protecting a young Pulsian boy, but that had happened and there was no denying it.

It was difficult for Fang to admit it aloud, but she will at least admit mentally that Lightning had earned a tiny bit of her respect from that. She admitted that Lightning was a good fighter no doubt for giving her all the bruises, but earning her respect was a different thing, she rarely respected anyone if they were not good enough in their fighting skills for Gran Pulsians, but for a Cocoonian it was difficult to earn her respect aside from just being good in fighting.

It required someone like Lightning to do that, Fang realized. The woman was really unpredictable, it was only a few days ago the pinkette had been trying to kill her for being a Pulsian, but now she was saving a Pulsian, and not to mention her injuries from their big fight had yet to fully recover no doubt if she compared the pinkette with herself, the potion Vanille gave aided her a lot in the recovery process that her bruises had faded considerably, but for the pinkette's bruises it were still lingering on her face. But nevertheless, Lightning had jumped into action protecting the boy. This was what earned Fang's respect for Lightning.

Then, an old conversation from Vanille and her resurfaced in her mind, it was about Vanille advising her to be kinder to her past Cocoonian roommates. Given her attitude from the past, she would definitely be quick to shush it off, but now she gave it a thought.

_Fang, not all Cocoonians are the same you know, you just aren't opening yourself up from that hatred of yours in trying to see the difference in each individual. You just always jump straight into the conclusion that all Cocoonians are the same, the past was hard to bear yes, but you can't always live in the past when you're here in the future. You're being caged in, Fang, it's been so many years now, just let it go and you'll be freer than you ever feel in your entire life._

Fang gave the advice Vanille had given her some consideration, living with hatred since she was three was indeed a long, long time now that she was nineteen. Maybe she could finally let it go? Was her opportunity of change here now? She wouldn't know, but one thing was for sure.

Lightning was different, and she can probably get to know the Cocoonian.

XXX

Lightning reached Nora and headed straight into the employees' resting room from the backdoor of the one-storey building and she found Lebreau seated in a chair with her legs resting on top of a round table while flipping through the magazine. When Lightning entered, Lebreau looked up with an expectant smile but it quickly changed into a horror-strike face.

"Etro, what happened to your face?" Lebreau asked with concern as she got up from her chair.

"Just a fight." She replied shortly.

"Poor thing…" Lebreau said as she scanned her bruise-battered face, "Are you okay to work?" she asked with concern laced in her voice, worry that the apparently bruise-battered woman might have injuries that might hinder her in her work.

Lightning nodded, "Yes, I'm fine."

Lebreau let out a small sigh at Lightning's bruised face, she was expecting to see her beautiful working partner with that pretty face that she adored, but that will probably need to wait till her bruises fade. "Alright then, glad to hear that. Friday night is a pretty busy night, so brace yourself yea? And here," Lebreau grabbed a set of uniform which consisted of a white blouse with black vest and a pair of black slacks then handed it over to Lightning, "Your uniform for work. Don't worry, you don't need to wear something revealing like I do, only I get the privilege." She winked at the pinkette.

Lightning received the uniform then headed into the changing room to change. After she stripped the remaining piece of blue long sleeve blouse which she donned, she turned around to examine the injury that she obtained from the earlier fight which had already turned blue-black.

_Let's hope this don't trouble me during work… _Sighing, Lightning changed into her uniform before heading out to join Lebreau behind the bar.

XXX

Fang arrived at bar NORA with its doors still closed for resting period. Pushing open the closed entrance door, she entered and spotted her boss already behind the war. Weird, usually the woman was not out in the bar that early. Curious, Fang strode to the bar.

Lebreau noticed Fang approaching and she greeted her with a wink along with a suggestive smile, "Oh Fang, you're finally here. You're a bit late today, caught up with something? Were you too busy missing me that you forgot that you'd work?"

Fang snickered at the woman's flirt, two can play this game, the tanned woman was quite a flirtatious teaser too, "And you don't always show up behind the bar this early, do you miss me so much that you had to come out here and wait for my arrival?" she teased with a smirk.

Lebreau chuckled, "You wish, tiger. There's a new bartender who will be working alongside with me starting today, and tell you what, she's really hot and a real beauty too." Her voice dropped to low, husky tone at the last comment.

"Oh, so what became of me now?" Fang faked disappointment in her tone.

"Oh don't be jealous, you're still in the top list with that exotic beauty and hot curves." Lebreau complimented with a wink.

Fang chuckled then arched an eyebrow at the beauty the woman mentioned earlier, Lebreau was a natural beauty-seeker and with quite good tastes too, so when the woman said the target was hot, then she was, "Lucky you, who's the pretty girl who had so unluckily walked into a tiger's drooling mouth?" she asked with curiosity laced in her voice, she was interested in either beautiful or hot women too after all.

Lebreau wiggled her finger at Fang to come closer, and Fang did obediently due to curiosity. When Fang's ear was close enough, Lebreau whispered huskily, "How about you give me a kiss first?"

Fang pulled back with a fake scowl, Lebreau was pretty but she was not her cup of tea, and she will not touch whatever which was not her cup of tea. "No. If you don't tell I'll still find out myself anyway."

Lebreau chuckled, "Alright, alright, just kidding. Her name's-" before Lebreau could finish, said woman had entered into the bar through the staff entrance, "Ah, there she is." the owner said with a grin on her face.

"Sorry for taking so-" Lightning stopped in her speech and in her track the moment she lifted to see someone totally unexpected.

Fang looked to the woman who appeared from the staff entrance and her expression immediately turned agape at the familiar sight.

Lightning was staring at Fang incredulously while Fang was doing the same, both were undergoing the same incredulity that they had experienced back on the first two days when they kept bumping into each other, _constantly. _

Fate sure had a knack for constantly putting them together.

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**That's that for now, R&R people, and tell me how you guys feel about how it's coming along at the moment till this point. Thanks for reading.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Okay guys, I'm back, sorry for the long delay! So new chapter is up, I hope this chapter isn't too confusing or a tad long-winded, hopefully you guys would enjoy this chapter. Enjoy the read, people!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to FFXIII.**

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Put Your Trust In Me

Chapter 4 – Friend or Foe (Part 1)

Lightning and Fang were staring dumbfounded at each others' faces while Lebreau looked between the two of them, unable to comprehend the current situation but then an assumption fell upon her. With a snap of her fingers, she broke the women's gaze.

"I know you two find each other bloody alluring but let's not forget that I'm here yea?" Lebreau said with a joking tone.

This earned both pairs of disbelieving eyes along with a frown on her, causing her to reconsider the things she said, "What? Was I wrong at the guess of you two staring openly in front of me without a word exchange because you two find each other attractive?" she asked with an arched eyebrow and wore an expression of bewilderment.

Fang cracked a wry and dubious smile, "Is this for real?" she directed the question at the pinkette more than at the dark haired owner even though her eyes were on Lebreau.

Lightning merely showed a faint frown at the question, unwilling to answer to such an obvious matter.

So that prompted Lebreau to answer Fang, "Why yes, she's our new assistant bartender and barista for the morning, any problems?" the woman asked with an arched eyebrow. When no one answered her and even Fang looked away with a seemingly inexplicable look, concern started to well up inside of Lebreau sensing that the two must have some problems with each other, she would not want her employees to have problems with each other or else it might hinder the bar's business. "So… I assume you two know each other? Judging on the reactions you two gave me…" she said while gesturing at the two women.

"We're even roommates, 'Breau." Fang finally answered after awhile, looking back with an ironic smirk.

Lebreau gaped at the brunette's response and looked to Lightning with the same expression, "Really?" she asked.

The pink haired woman sighed softly and nodded.

Lebreau immediately spun her head back to Fang, "Aren't _YOU _the lucky one? Why haven't you mentioned about _her _even once?" she said with a tone laced with jealousy, "She's like Etro-ly _hot._" The last sentence was barely above a whisper.

The tanned woman chuckled, "Trust me, I'm far from lucky. Hey, see these faint bruises over the bridge of my nose here, 'Breau?" she said with a finger gently touching her nose.

Lebreau followed Fang's finger and locked her sight at the slightly blue-black bruise covering the brunette's nose, then she hung her mouth open, "Oh my, you got hit in the face? The _great Oerba Yun Fang _got hit in the face? Who was this person who was brave and strong enough to land a hit on you? Last time someone touched you in the arm you already had them hospitalized in a matter of seconds, I doubt this person could live through it after this punch..." She said while looking closely at the bruise and winced, not realizing that Fang was smirking at her comment.

An awkward cough sounded from Lightning and it caused Lebreau to turn to her. The brunette then continued, "Didn't you ask how she got those bruises on her face?" she nodded her head in Lightning's direction.

The dark haired woman nodded, "I did, she said it was from a fight-" a pause, then a sharp gasp, then she continued, "_She _did _this _to _you_?" she asked with a tone filled with astonishment, and so was her face expression.

Fang nodded smiling wryly, "And she managed to live through it, yep."

All Lebreau could do was gape at Fang's response, she might want to reconsider if flirting with the pinkette behind her was a good idea if she was someone who could hit Fang AND live through the aftermath, and also to rethink if she should be careful in her words if she found herself mad at the pinkette for doing something wrong during work. She was the boss here no doubt, but she was not too sure how the pinkette might react, it might be the end of her if Lightning resorts to violence as a response to her 'lecture'. Turning her head around slightly to glance at Lightning over her shoulder, she managed weakly, "You…" she trailed off at the lost of words.

Lightning sighed and finally spoke up for the first time during the whole exchange, "I'm not prone to violence, I'm fairly reasonable. If you catch me slacking off during work, I won't resort to violence as a means of revenge against you. And you're safe, I won't do anything violent if you sprout any flirtatious comments at me. I'll only resort to violence if the other party wants to." She explained the last point as she shot Fang a glare.

Fang held her glare and a smirk touched her lips, "Violence occurs only if there is mutual violent intention from both parties originally from the start, y'know." She said with a matter-of-fact tone, indicating their fight a couple of days back.

The pinkette frowned and decided to hold herself back, it was her first day at work and the last thing she wanted was getting fired on the first day for getting into a fight, which without a doubt will be violent if it was the two of them involved. Not to mention she was not in tip-top condition to put Fang down at the moment too. Choosing to ignore the brunette, Lightning turned to Lebreau who had moved away earlier from the two and was standing a fair distance away now, "Lebreau, I'm sure you'd like to start briefing me on my job now?"

Lebreau managed a smile which was both awkward and grateful at the same time, awkward for the steadily increasingly tensed atmosphere the two women created and grateful that that didn't escalated into anything that might need to cost her loads to renovate the bar. Approaching Lightning, she started, "Right, well let's begin then."

XXX

Night time at NORA's was always a busy period bustling with customers getting off from work for a drink down in the local bar while conversing with the other local natives casually, and when it came to Friday, the bar would always be packed like satins in a can. Though even so, people just kept coming back for the bar's good drinks, foods, friendly service and also the charismatic owner. It was only after an hour the bar reopened for night shift and it was already thoroughly filled with people. The bar's popularity in such a remote seaside beach was really surprising for Lightning to say the least.

Now here she was behind the bar along with Lebreau, both were busy with their orders at hand though Lebreau was obviously smoother at handling the drinks and she could even have a relaxed conversation at the patrons seated at the bar while her hands moved swiftly to make the drinks. Well, that spoke for experience and familiarity. Lightning however was not as bad, though she might not be as familiar as Lebreau regarding where to get some of the necessary ingredients for making the drinks, but she was managing it pretty good with her current speed, save for the part where she ignored most of the customers attempting at chitchats.

Halfway through, Lebreau noticed that beers had been running low in the beer cooling cabinets, so she had requested Lightning to fetch a few boxes of beers up here from the underground storeroom while she tended to her portion of the orders. The pinkette nodded and followed her instructions given then she disappeared from behind the bar into the underground storeroom. Down below, she switched on the lights and scanned the room which was segmented into different parts with labels. When her eyes dropped to the label which reads 'Beer', she jogged forward and attempted to pick up the box of beer which by the looks of it, it was going to be heavy.

Exhaling and clenching her jaw tightly, she braced herself for the pain that was sure to come attacking her shoulder the moment she pick up the weighty box full of beer bottles. After giving a moment to ready herself, she used every ounce of strength available in her body and picked up the heavy box of beer, gritting her teeth when the pain started to sting her shoulder and upper back. Pushing herself, she hurried back to the bar with the box of beer in her arms.

Once she was up behind the bar, she quickly placed the beer down on the ground and chose to push it instead of continuing to carry the killing weight. Lebreau noticed the pinkette pushing the box of beer over with sweat covered face and worry built up in the woman.

"Are you alright? You're sweating awfully lot." Lebreau asked with concern laced in her voice.

Lightning merely nodded, she was already spent carrying the box of beer up and she really could use less talk. Without another word, she disappeared back into the underground storeroom again. It was a good five minutes after Lightning had disappeared down there. Concern for the woman, Lebreau had waved Fang over since the brunette was pretty much just standing there with nothing much to do. Fang noticed and made her way through to the bar.

"What's it? Trouble?" Fang asked as she began turning her head around to scan the crowd.

Lebreau grabbed Fang's head gently and turned it back to her, "No, I need help."

Fang arched an eyebrow, "I can't make drinks." She stated.

"Not this, I can handle here. I need you to help me check on Lightning, she hasn't come back and it's already been five whole minutes. The customers are calling for more beer and it's running out up here, and I doubt the distance from the storeroom to get here is worth a five-minute walk. Go check out what happened and help her with the remaining boxes of beer." Lebreau explained and then urged Fang to the storeroom, which Fang complied without another word.

Fang made her way down to the underground storeroom and to her surprise, she found Lightning in a crouching position with a hand grasping her right shoulder and her expression one of agonizing pain. The brunette hurried over with concern.

"Oy, are you alright?" Fang asked with a worried frown.

Lightning heard Fang's voice and struggled the words out forcefully, "I-I'm fine." She managed through gritted teeth, though her tone betrayed what she said entirely.

Fang huffed and moved around the box of beer which was in front of the kneeling woman, "Bloody hell ya not, if you want to lie choose a better timing. Move aside," she went on as she kneeled and attempted to pick up the box of beer.

Lightning scowled, "I can do it." She countered as she pressed a hand on top of the box, reluctant to let Fang help her. The pinkette was a stubborn person to begin with and her stubbornness only doubled when it came to Pulsians. Lightning was tempted to let Fang help her but the moment that mouth of hers started running with that sardonic tone which seemingly indicated to Lightning that she meant 'you're so weak' through that sentence, she couldn't find herself giving in to the woman's help even if it hurts her even more, it'd only make her feel pathetic about herself.

The pinkette moved her hands around the box to take it from Fang but the brunette's strong arms held on strongly onto the box, unwilling to give it to the pinkette who was obviously pushing herself due to her ego, which Fang could clearly see it. With a slight frown, Fang started, "Look, Lebreau's already getting impatient so it's better if you leave it to me. I'm not helping you, I'm helping Lebreau." She said, hoping the last part was convincing enough to have the hurting pinkette let go, though it was also partially true that she was doing Lebreau a favor in helping her get the beer back to the bar as soon as possible with the overflowing orders coming in.

Lightning's hold on the box was still strong but after awhile she loosened her grip and reluctantly let Fang took over. Stubbornness will not be favorable during work, Lightning was still well aware of that no matter how egoistic she was, the woman was quite rational in most cases except a few rare occasions. The pinkette felt useless now and all she could do was mentally curse at the terrible pain that was coursing through her shoulder and upper back, the last thing she wanted was help from her Pulsian roommate and consequently owing her a favor but she had little choice in deciding that.

Fang stood with the box of beer in her arms and turned to the exit, but before she left she took one last glance at Lightning who was slowly standing up though her grip at her shoulder returned. With a concerned look, she started, "Hey, leave the rest to me. You're not in the condition to do it so stop pushing yourself."

"I don't need advices from you." Lightning stated firmly, unwilling to admit that the Pulsian was right.

Fang frowned at that, but instead of shooting back a thorny remark at the pinkette, the incident from earlier played in her head stopped her from doing so. Her point of view of the pink haired woman changed for the better and she didn't want to jump back to her old perspective too fast just with that. After all, she could understand what pride and ego could urge a person to do. With a somewhat defeated sigh, she headed back up to the bar without another word. Lightning half expected a comeback and was a little surprised at the lack of it, though she felt a bit appreciative at that, this made her think that perhaps the concern she heard from earlier was not as fictitious as she deemed it to be. After Fang left, she followed suit.

Back at the bar, Lebreau saw the two women returning and was glad to see the box of beer. During their absence the beer had run out and orders for it kept coming in. When the dark haired woman looked to Lightning who was empty-handed and to Fang who was carrying it, she immediately started her questioning at the pinkette, "Lightning, what took you so long?" she asked, daring Lightning to tell her the reason with a stern tone.

Lightning stuttered for words, her ability for speech suddenly went out of the window. She was not too sure how the woman will react if she said she was injured when she had just only told her earlier that she was fine, Lightning would hate for the owner to get the wrong impression of her making up excuses to slack off, but now she was thinking if the woman will even believe her for telling something so contradictive.

Sensing Lightning's difficulty in coming up with words, Fang stepped in, "She was injured in the shoulder, I'll help you fetch the remaining boxes of beers. Do me a favor and keep this woman here just tending to the drinks will ya?" she said as she disappeared towards the underground storeroom again.

Lebreau looked to Lightning with a stern stare and the pinkette held her gaze, she knew she was at fault for hindering the woman, so she was ready to receive her first _lecture _on her first day. With a determined look, she readied herself for the inevitable.

However, what Lightning anticipated never came. Instead, Lebreau merely managed a helpless smile at the pinkette, "Lightning, relax, I'm more sensible than you think. Although you could've just told me that you're injured earlier, then I'd have just sent someone else in your place."

"I… I didn't want to trouble anyone." Lightning explained with a faint frown, unhappy with herself already causing Lebreau trouble as she spoke.

Lebreau moved over to Lightning and gently poked the pinkette's head with one finger. Caught off guard, Lightning stumbled backwards slightly due to shock and surprise, no one had ever done this to her and certainly was not expecting the dark haired woman to do so, for a moment there she was thankful for the pain for keeping her less alert or else she might react out of reflex in a very unpleasant way towards the woman for pulling this act. Smiling, Lebreau went on, "If you work for me, your trouble's mine and mine's yours, we help out each other here, alright? In this place, we're all family."

Rendered speechless upon hearing that, Lightning stared at Lebreau blankly until she finally registered the sentence in her head, "Right." She managed after awhile along with a faint smile.

Catching a glimpse of the pinkette's smile, Lebreau's own smile turned into what one could say was a hungry grin, "Are you trying to seduce big sis me over here using innocence?" she asked seductively.

Lightning backed away and the smile was wiped off immediately then replaced with the stoic expression that she normally wore, "No." she simply muttered before getting back to the orders from the bar.

Lebreau chuckled and went back to work and she was surprised to see Fang suddenly in front of her already, the woman moved like a ghost. "Fang? You're back, that was fast."

Fang smirked, "Why, you didn't want me to be back here this fast? Am I disturbing your flirting session, 'big sis'? Or should I say, ol' lady." She teased.

Lebreau made an offended look at Fang, "Excuse me! I'm only 22, hardly an ol' lady yet mind you!" she shot at Fang with a fake offended tone.

The brunette shrugged, "Whatever age above 19 is considered old to me." Fang teased with a smirk, enjoying the fun from poking at the older woman's age.

The dark haired woman growled lowly at her, "Get back to your post you lil' devil." Fang complied and left, then Lebreau turned to Lightning who was – coincidentally – looking her way, "Sorry, that was just our way of getting along hope ya don't mind. Say… what do you think of older women?"

Lightning turned away without another word and continued the task at hand.

XXX

Later into the night, the bar was closing soon and customers had mostly gone off left for a few tables. Lebreau had let Lightning off early since she was injured and Fang as well so as to let the pinkette have a companion on the way back. Lightning had voiced that there was no need for Fang to be off early – and personally she preferred to be left alone rather than be with her roommate – but Lebreau will have none of it saying that the streets at night down in the suburbs were pretty dangerous, so it was best if Fang were to have a companion along too even though Fang clearly didn't need it, but Lightning was injured so it was obvious why Lebreau had Fang tagged along.

So now here they were sitting in the train's empty cabin, where only the two women aboard the near midnight train. The two sat a fair distance away from each other, though Fang had tried to sit a little closer earlier without much thought but Lightning had shot her a glare, reminding her the agreements they settled with on their first day (Lightning's rule). Along the whole journey, not a word was exchanged by either of them, for Lightning simply because she was a woman of few words to begin with plus she was tired and didn't want to talk to Fang, and as for Fang she really had no idea what to talk about either when the other party still seemed to be rather hostile and detestable – probably still due to the fight between them – against her.

The two walked back to their dormitory room while keeping a notable distance between them. Once inside, Lightning sauntered over to her wardrobe and grabbed for a set of clothes before disappearing into the bathroom without another word, but failed to notice due to the pain distracting her that in her haste to get into the bathroom her shirt had fell to the ground. Fang on the other hand, decided to sit by her study desk and get some of her writing assignments – which had been stacked there to a mountain for weeks now – finished so that she could hand in to Instructor Sazh on Monday or else she would risk getting extras added from not handing in within the delayed deadline.

In the midst of burying her head in the assignments, Fang accidentally knocked the jar of bright green gel like solution which was in the way and this reminded her of something. She could offer some of this thing Vanille called potion to the pinkette to speed up her healings, the wound on her back must be pretty bad judging from the encounter earlier. Deciding that she will repay her debt from before with this, she took the jar and stood from her chair then wanted to make her way to Lightning's bathroom door. But then she stopped, second thought, the pinkette might not appreciate the act of knocking on her bathroom door while she was showering, so she decided to wait till the pinkette was out of the bathroom and returned to her assignments.

In the bathroom, Lightning was still showering, cold water washed down her bruise covered body and the fresh bruise newly formed at the upper back stood out the most among the other who had faded considerably if not all. Dropping her head low, she let the cold water run through her neck and upper back more, which resulted with a suppressed hiss from the woman due to the stinging pain. Earlier it felt alright when she was first hit, but now the effect seemed to have come bombarding at her senses and the effect apparently had doubled from forcefully carrying the heavy weight previously. Exhaling, she turned off the water tap and stepped out of the shower then grabbed her towel and started drying herself. After drying off, she started dressing herself starting from the bottom and when she was done she proceeded to her top.

Then she finally realized it, her shirt was nowhere to be found. And her towel was too short to cover her upper body fully without revealing some parts of her skin. Cursing, she started to look around the bathroom to see if there was anything else that could help cover her body when she steps out to retrieve her shirt. Just then, a knock came to the door and Lightning jerked her head towards the sound exasperatedly, not fond of any interruptions coming from the outside when she was in the middle of a nuisance.

"Hey, you dropped something. Your shirt." Fang's voice came through the door.

Lightning blinked a few times and her face returned to her normal expression when her problem was solved, though not too glad that Fang was the one to help since she really didn't like owing the other woman favors – that given Lightning, she will insist on returning a favor back, she would never want to owe a Pulsian anything –, but she could live with it and not that she had any reason to deny her help now unless her intention was to walk out into the room in her half naked glory with her Pulsian roommate there. The pinkette was always protective over her own privacy, so there was no way she would have stepped out there with a small towel partially covering her bosom. Lightning had mentally noted down to purchase a new towel later, just in case any of the sort ever happens again. Walking over to the door, she opened it partially enough for her hand to slip through and took her shirt from Fang hastily, then she muttered a small thanks before quickly closing the door.

Fang was about to hand the jar of gel solution to the woman along with the shirt but before she could, the woman had already slammed the door shut against her the moment the shirt slipped from her grasp. Shrugging, she decided to back away for now and went back to lying on her bed while waiting for the pinkette to finish her business.

After a couple of minutes went by, the bathroom door swung open and Lightning stepped out from the bathroom with the towel draping around her shoulder. Fang looked to Lightning who had made her way to sit by the side of her bed, so she got up from bed and took the jar then made her way towards Lightning. Lightning was busy wiping her hair dry with the towel which happened to somewhat cover her sight, not noticing that Fang had now stopped a few steps before her. The brunette then intruded the pinkette's sight with the jar of potion in hand, startling Lightning a little when she looked up, then a slight frown mixed with puzzlement followed suit.

Fang's eyes darted away to various directions to avoid the pinkette's questioning gaze, she was not used to making eye contact with the other woman when she was not actually glaring at Lightning. "Here." She muttered briskly with a dreary sort of tone, unused to talking casually with the pinkette.

Lightning's frown only deepened at the tone, she mistook the tone as something similar to unwillingness, so she voiced with an icy tone of her own, "I don't need you to forcefully offer me anything if you're unwilling to."

That caused Fang to turn her head and looked at the pinkette who went back to drying her hair, now how did that accusation come into the picture? She was not even feeling a bit of unwillingness in the matter, she simply wanted to offer it and she was doing it wholeheartedly. One of the few good traits that she was sure of possessing was definitely sincerity, when she wanted to offer someone something, she does it unreservedly, no one can ever force Oerba Yun Fang to do whatever she does not want to do. Why did Lightning even say that was beyond her understanding. With a frown of her own, she decided to explain herself, although why she decided to she didn't know, only Maker knows why she cared enough to explain herself to the pink haired Cocoonian, or perhaps deep down her heart knew why, "I wasn't forcing myself, I'm not sure how you came up with that accusation of yours, but I simply wanted to offer this to you so that it could help speed up your recovery process."

Lightning looked up again at the brunette and stared at her with an arched eyebrow along with a questioning gaze, but this time Fang held her gaze. Listening to the brunette's tone of voice, she sounded sincere, but too sincere in Lightning's opinion, and the woman's sudden change in behavior bothered her to say the least, she was not sure what to expect from the other party and the sudden change only made her raise her guard for fear that the brunette was planning a scheme at the back of her mind. After thinking it through, her own suspicions spiked and to be on the safe side, she decided to decline even if the brunette meant no ill intention, "Save it."

Fang's frown deepened from the response, she wasn't sure why, but it felt like she could read the woman fairly easily, and that meant she could feel every drop of distrust from the woman towards her, "Why? It's useful and you need it, think about what happened earlier, your injury needs to be treated." She said with a firm and seemingly righteous tone, and also with concern hinted in her voice. Fang wanted the woman to have a faster recovery and she was also truly concerned for her wellbeing despite her being a Cocoonian, her actions towards the woman changed due to the respect that she now harbored for her.

However, Lightning was too dense to decipher the concern laced within while being totally aggravated at the seemingly righteous tone the woman had. Shooting the brunette a glare, she started, "I don't need help from you." Her tone one of aggravation and displeased at the woman's stubbornness. Now she was starting to think if the potion was actually something that she had actually altered that would make her injury go from bad to worse from the woman's insistence.

No matter how Fang had harbored the respect for the woman from her earlier actions, her patience was quickly reaching her limit at the woman's stubbornness and egoism, the respect in Fang's heart now started to waver too. Dropping her hand which held onto the jar, another came up to impatiently scratch the back of her head as she went on, "Look, I saw what happened earlier at the back alley. It was too late to help so I couldn't do anything."

Lightning shot her a glare. One thing about the pinkette was that she jumped to conclusions too quickly than at enemies and most of the time she assumed things which all turned out to be ill-willed due to her being quite the pessimist because of her previous life experiences. So now, her mind had immediately interpreted the message into the total opposite of what Fang meant – which was actually concern – into one of mocked concern and sympathy. And for Lightning, what she hated most was to be pitied, and the fact that it was done by a Pulsian only made her more disturbed and irritated. Scowling, she continued, "I don't need _you_ to _pity _me. Just leave me alone." She said with a tone of mixed agitation and on edge.

That's it, that was Fang's last straw. She was sick of her arrogant tone and her accusations of her when she was not of that intention. Having respect for the woman was one thing but getting backfired for being kind was another, scowling angrily at the pinkette, she spat out heatedly, "Fine, now I know that being kind meant getting ill treatment from Cocoonians, no wonder Pulsians and Cocoonians never get along." With that, she spun on her heel and headed back to her side of the room, placed the jar on the table roughly before grabbing a set of clothes and stomped into her bathroom before slamming the door shut hardly.

Lightning watched on as the brunette stomped into the bathroom angrily, the whole scene exchange sort of startled Lightning, she thought the woman would just back off without a care like nothing happened even if she rejected her since they were not even acquaintances to begin with so she could care less, but instead the brunette went on rampage mode from her rejection of her help made Lightning felt a little bad for her behavior. Maybe she was actually sincere? No, Lightning's mind told her no, yes she was ready to start and change her point of view for Pulsians, but this roommate of hers was another matter. The first impression on first day and the following fight was bad enough to make Lightning hate the woman, so everything that was actually good intention from the brunette would eventually convert into ill intention by Lightning's stubborn mind, her mind runs on autopilot when it came to things she hated. Once again, due to her stubborn mind refusing to consider anything good of the woman, Lightning concluded that Fang was probably just mad at her scheme failing for worsening her injuries. With that conclusion, she hung her towel on a hanger before heading to bed and rest for the night, sleep immediately took her the moment her eyes closed.

XXX

10 a.m. – Yaschaas Massif

"Aha, found it! Just what I was looking for." Vanille chimed happily as she made her way to a small patch of flowers and knelt down to collect the needed samples for her next project. "Alright, next on the list would be… salvia officinalis! We're almost done, Fang." She said as she turned to look at the brunette who was staring at nothing, just day dreaming at the green patch of grass. She called out a little louder, "Fang? Gran Pulse to Fang?"

Fang broke her gaze at the patch of grass and looked to Vanille who was looking back at her with curious eyes, "Oh, er, yea?" she asked, missing what the red head said earlier.

Vanille huffed at her sister's absentmindedness, "I said we're almost done, just down to the last one and we can head back soon." She said as she stood and continued to move.

Fang nodded, "Oh, okay." She replied, and after that her mind drifted off elsewhere again.

Fang was following closely behind with her arms crossed, her mind was clearly engrossed with something else with the absentminded look on her face. Vanille had been talking to the brunette since they met this morning but all the responses she got were either a 'hmm' or a 'mm'. Along the way, Vanille had resumed talking nonstop while Fang basically blocked her out with her mind occupied with something else. After awhile of constant attempts at a conversation with her sister failed, she tried another tactic which will surely grab Fang's attention back to her. "You know, Fang, there's a new transfer student from Cocoon two weeks back."

A hum.

"And he's really cute."

Another hum.

"I think I like him." Vanille said with a smirk but was unseen by the brunette behind.

Fang stopped and processed the sentence, first a Cocoonian, then he's cute, and then Vanille said she likes him. Wait, _likes _him? A Cocoonian? Fang's eyes widened with shock and quickly interjected then, all trains of thoughts put on hold as she focused back on the red head, "W-wait, _what?_" she asked with a tone of disbelief as she gawked at the younger Pulsian.

Vanille turned with a mischievous smile tugging at her lips, "What 'what'?"

"You didn't just say that." Fang went on with a slightly threatening tone, her over-protectiveness side taking over.

"I think I did?" Vanille's smirk was still there.

Fang's eyes narrowed dangerously as she crossed her arms and flashed her canines threateningly, "Alright, who is this guy and what's his name? I swear I'm gonna-" when Fang was halfway through her rant, Vanille interrupted and stopped her.

"Calm down, Fang, I was just kidding. Although the part where I said he was cute was true, and his name is Hope." The red head said with a hand gesturing for the brunette to calm down.

However, Fang's suspicion was still high in the air, with an arched eyebrow, she continued her inquiries, "How did you meet him?"

Vanille walked over to where Fang stood and placed both hands on the brunette's shoulders, "Fang, I was just kidding that I said I like him, I mean I do like him but not _that _kind of like. And he's taking the same course as I am, so that's how we met." She explained.

Fang eyed her younger sister warily, which caused Vanille to let out a sigh and put on her best puppy eyes along with a pout, "Fang… You don't believe me…?" she said with trembling lips.

Just from this sight, Fang's suspicion dropped altogether and her shoulders slumped in defeat. With a sigh, she continued, "Alright, alright, drop the act, I believe you geez. Why in Gran Pulse's name did you pull a joke like that anyway, you know how jokes like these bother me." She said with a slight pout, displeased at the red head's mischievousness.

Vanille retracted her hands and crossed her arms with a frown plastered on her face, "Isn't it all because of you."

Fang arched both her eyebrows and her mouth parted slightly, a look of bewilderment on her face. "What? How so?" she asked.

"Since this morning when we met, other than the 'hello' you gave me this morning you'd been either replying me with 'hm' or 'mm' with whatever I said, so I figured I'd grab your attention back here with that made up joke." She said with a displeased tone.

Fang parted her mouth slightly then closed it again, not knowing what to say but letting a troubled expression show on her face. The red head was right, her mind was occupied with something else since this morning and she had been pretty much not paying attention – or plain ignoring – the red head, since the younger Pulsian was not talking about anything important anyway, if she was, she would have given her more than just a 'hm' like that joke earlier.

Vanille eyed the brunette's expression carefully, then her tone softened into one of concern, "Fang, if there's something on your mind, you can always share it with me. We're a family, right?"

Fang looked into the red head's concern eyes and suddenly she felt bad for her previous behavior which made Vanille worried for her, sighing softly, she decided to voice out her thoughts, "It's just… well… how should I put it…" but she trailed off and turned away slightly, not knowing how to put it into words.

Vanille watched Fang's expression and with a knowing hum she continued for the woman, "Is it about… your roommate?"

Bingo.

Fang looked to Vanille again with widened eyes and a shocked expression donned her face, "Wha- how did you know? Was I that obvious?" she asked, dumbfounded.

Vanille shrugged, "You don't usually have anything bothering you, the things that usually get you into this state are related to me, but obviously I'm totally fine here. The only one thing that I could think of that's bothering you recently is Lightning." She said with a matter-of-fact kind of tone.

Fang arched an eyebrow, "Huh, I s'pose those silly fictions from Cocoon helped you a little in playing detective eh?"

The red head sulked at Fang's insult at one of her favorite novels, "Excuse me, Sherlock Holmes is not silly at all! So that aside, what's with Lightning?"

Fang frowned when they went back to the question, after a little hesitation, she finally started, "I just don't get why I deserved such a treatment when all I thought of was just trying to be kind."

Vanille's ears perked up and let out a hum, then she urged Fang to continue, "What happened?"

"Look, I was just offering her that potion that you gave me the other day, don't get me wrong, I was just trying to return the favor, I thought it was really useful since it sped up my healing pretty good, so I decided to offer her, but it turned out to be a bad end for me." Fang said as she crossed her arms, displeased when yesterday's event took place in her head again.

"By 'bad end' you mean?" Vanille prompted.

"She was like so… what do you call that, right, distrustful. You see, I was just being kind and helpful and my kindness got backfired when she started accusing me of saying that I forced myself to offer, which I was actually very willing, then her tone went sour with the 'I don't need help from you' and next was accusing me of pitying her when I was just… just…" Fang trailed off midway, an uneasy expression plastered on her face.

"Concern." Vanille finished for her and watched the woman's illustration with a knowing look, she knew where this was going.

"… Right, concern." Fang reluctantly admitted with slumped shoulders, she was actually unwilling to outwardly admit that she was _concern _for the pinkette's wellbeing even if it was Vanille that she was dealing with, afraid that the red head would look at her strangely. Lightning was a Cocoonian after all, and her showing concern for her was just weird even to her, but facts were facts, she couldn't deny the truth that she was indeed concern for Lightning's wellbeing. But there was also the fact that she hated Cocoonians. Okay, now she was being contradicting.

Vanille watched with interest hinted in her eyes, with a thoughtful smile she started, "Is it so hard to admit that you were actually concern for someone?"

"Well… to a Cocoonian, yea." Fang replied.

"As long as I've known you, I'm sure you wouldn't just show concern to anyone without a reason, especially to Lightning who is a Cocoonian at that too. I assume something must've happened between you two?" Vanille asked.

"More like something happened to her and I saw it."

"Elaborate, please."

"I was on my way to work yesterday night and then I heard a scream, I sensed trouble and started running towards the source. When I reached somewhere near the cause, I saw Lightning fighting off three men to protect a young Pulsian boy. I wanted to help but it was too late so I didn't. After that, she and the boy seem to be having a conversation and possibly a good one at that since the boy was smiling, though she remained her stoic expression until the boy left…" again, Fang trailed off as she recalled the incident, but this time a tiny smile was threatening to grace her lips.

Vanille saw the small twitching movement at the edge of Fang's lips and she continued to urge her into spilling more, which she was sure there was more to it where she left off judging by the woman's spaced out expression, "Until the boy left, then what? She did something?"

Fang's thoughts halted from the red head's interruption and the smile that was threatening to form immediately wiped off, "She er, smiled." She simply replied.

"She smiled? Whoa, that must be a sight, I'd never seen her with any other facial expression other than the stoic one. How does it look like?" the red head prodded further.

"What? Just like… any other smile." Fang paused slightly in the middle before continuing her sentence.

"Oh come on, describe a little, you're lucky enough to see that smile of hers." Vanille pouted at Fang.

"Her smile wasn't meant for me anyway, the lucky one was the boy." Fang countered.

"Regardless, you still saw it, describe a little. It must be pretty sweet huh? Lightning's actually very attractive after all you've got to admit."

Fang gave it a thought, actually deep down in her heart, to be honest she did find Lightning very attractive, she had the curves where most people would be drooling just by looking at it, not that she didn't have it herself but she was not going to ogle at her own body, and of course she was not going to ogle at Lightning's. At times, she found the pinkette sitting alone in class reading and the serene look of hers was actually – Fang couldn't or wouldn't deny it – beautiful to say the least, however she would never ever admit it aloud, not to her, it would be so weird and awkward to really say these to someone who she hated in the past. Though now she could probably accept it more comfortably after having some respect for the woman, "It's not sweet… her smile was actually something more than just beautiful." She confessed.

Vanille gasped slightly, not expecting such a response from her sister, or maybe she did half expected it, "You just _complimented_ Lightning? That's really something."

"What? It's the truth, you know how I don't deny facts." Fang frowned.

"I know, but you actually _admitted_ it _aloud, _and to someone that you _'apparently' _hate, Fang. As far as I'm concerned, the stubborn you that I've come to know will never, ever admit anything good about something or someone that you hate." Vanille said with a smirk and a knowing tone, challenging Fang to answer to that.

Fang bit her lower lip and looked away faintly. Damn, she hated to be read like an open book, but she should've known if she was dealing with Vanille. After all, they grew up together, it was only natural that they could read each other like an open book similar to a piece of cake. Sighing in defeat, she started, "Well, her actions from yesterday's incident did earned a little bit of my respect for her…"

"Why don't you just admit that you don't hate her already?" Vanille countered, getting right to the point. Her sister was good at a lot of things, but one of the few things that she was bad at other than her big ego was being dodgy about how she felt about things, and being terribly bad at hiding it too. So much for a person who sticks to facts when there were so much denial in her heart.

"What- no, I… it's just that she earned my respect for her remarkable actions, that's all." Fang countered.

"And what's more than that? So she earned your respect, that's it? I doubt just that would actually get you all bothered after the whole incident where she outright rejected your help and accused you. Knowing you, if you're dealing with someone who you dislike or hate but trying to return a favor which ended up in failure, you're definitely more than happy to be rejected of your help since you saved the effort of doing so or you couldn't care less about the matter, but instead you're all hot and bothered. So tell me, if this isn't proof that you don't hate her and it was something more, what is this? Fang, I doubt you need me to remind you that I grew up with you? Side by side?" Vanille said as she aligned both hands together and then tilting it upwards alternately gesturing at the two of them growing up together.

Fang mentally growled at the red head for seeing right through her again, Vanille was right about that, given the her from before she would have just happily walk away without a care but this time towards Lightning, it just happened to bother her, and a lot at that too but she couldn't figure out why. The brunette was as clueless as a frog in the well at her own behavior.

Sensing that Fang was rendered speechless, Vanille went on, "Let me guess, just now when you were all bothered alone and unwilling to share with me is because you think that I'd look at you weird, and even you find your own behavior towards Lightning strange and unexplainable, yes? It's like 'I hate her but I care' that kind of feeling huh?"

The brunette looked to Vanille with a frown and then reluctantly nodded like a little kid admitting guilt for stealing cookies. The red head chuckled at the adorable sight before she continued, "You want to know why you're acting weird, Fang?"

Fang nodded earnestly, "I do, you have no idea how I'd been struggling with it. It's like this weird feeling just keep bothering me and wouldn't go away and it's making me frustrating and I wanted to ask you but then-" halfway through, Vanille interjected with a hand held up.

"But you're too worried of how I'd look at you weird and your ego just wouldn't let it through until you're at the top of your frustration, I get it, stop running your mouth." Vanille said with a teasing tone and a playful smile, then when Fang stopped and pouted, she continued, "So back to where I left off, I was saying you're being so troubled because your feelings are contradicting, aren't they?"

Fang nodded again, this time though Vanille made a gesture for her to explain that contradicting feeling, as much as Vanille knew about her sister, she could only guess that much, some explanation still needed to be done for a clearer picture to see if she was right about what Fang felt. So Fang started out slowly, "Look, that big fight we had a couple of days back really, really got me heated up and I can practically feel my blood boiling at the mere sight of her, but then well she had helped me with the door so somehow I don't know… I guess I sorta felt bad for kicking her arse that bad and apparently I wasn't that mad anymore. Then it was the incident from yesterday when she pulled off that unexpected act of hers that got me having some respect for her…" stopping here, she let out a small sigh before she continued, "Alright, so this was what happened, after what I saw I guess you were right… not all Cocoonians are the same, so I guess maybe I could get to know this person, that's why I got kind towards her you see, but then urgh that attitude of hers just got me mad and all when I was just concern about her y'know? So after that I was back to like 'Cocoonians are like that' and 'She's irritating' but there was something else in my heart bugging me like 'Is she fine' and all. Gah, just give me something to spear so I can pour out my frustration at my inability to figure myself out." Fang finished off with a frustrated wave of hands and turned away from Vanille to scan the surroundings for anything that she could kill.

Vanille hummed thoughtfully at Fang's long enlightenment, apparently she was right. "I see, I see." She said with a knowing smile while she crossed her arms and a hand touching her chin thoughtfully.

Fang spun back to the red head with a frown, "So, Miss Sherlock Holmes, what do you think is my problem? Why do I get these… troubling feelings?"

"Eh-hem," Vanille started with a fake cough as she uncrossed her arms then placed it behind her lower back and her chest puffed out proudly, striking her best 'Sherlock Holmes's puzzle solving' pose as she continued slowly, "Well, Miss Fang, it's actually very, very obvious, if only you would admit to yourself."

Fang arched an eyebrow, not quite understanding the younger Pulsian's statement. When it came down to feelings, the woman was pretty dense after all. "What do I have to admit?" she asked, puzzled.

"That perhaps Lightning had earned more than just your respect, but your curiosity to know more about her and also you don't hate her to begin with." Vanille said with a finger drawing irregular shapes as she explained.

Fang wanted to counter upon hearing that, but she didn't know where to start since what Vanille said was practically bull's-eye, so all she could do was opening her mouth with the intention to object half-heartedly but then closed it, she knew better than to deny the truth now that someone had stated it clear enough for her. But still, there was something that was keeping her from totally acknowledging it.

Seeing the brunette's lack of speech, Vanille went on, "I'm right then, and it's good you finally admitted, then you wouldn't be so troubled, silly."

"You're partially right, not all though. You can't explain the part where I really, really despised her." Fang said as she crossed her arms.

Vanille shot her a look, "Fang, you just can't take total defeat, do you?" she said.

Fang shrugged, "Not until you explain."

_Stubborn. _Vanille thought to herself as she narrowed her eyes at her stubborn sister and huffed. Fine, she wanted an explanation and she would give her one, Fang better be thankful that she was her sister or else she would not have been so kind. "Look, you don't actually hate Lightning as a person, it's just that your first meeting with her things ended up a little tense, with the bad impression and your long time hatred towards Cocoon misled you into thinking that you hate her. Put it this way, your mind tricked you into it. Done, happy?"

Fang scratched her temple with a finger as she looked away, Vanille could consider being a detective if she ever find herself not wanting to be an herbalist anymore. As much as Fang wanted to refuse what Vanille said simply because she was so right about so much, she couldn't bring herself to, instead she suppose she could go with it. After all, she did made an agreement with herself that she would give herself a release from that hatred for Cocoonians after so many years, "Fine, you win. Go be a detective instead of an herbalist, geez."

Vanille smiled brightly after hearing Fang's agreement with her statement, "I can't really believe you agreed with me, I thought you'd actually shush me off even if I did hit bull's-eye. Something in you changed, isn't it?"

Fang smiled faintly, "Remember what you kept telling me last time? About my hatred towards Cocoonians?" she said.

The red head poked a finger at her chin while her face donned a thinking expression, "I'd told you lots about that, which one are you referring to?" she asked.

"About letting the past which had been haunting me for so many years go, and that not all are the same." Fang answered.

"Oh, that. What's up with it?"

"When I saw what Lightning did back there, I was actually very surprised. She could actually avoid the hit and just let the boy take it in her place, but instead she protected the boy using her body. Somehow, my guts are telling me she's different… so I gave your advice from back then a thought, which is why I felt like I could get to know her."

Vanille smiled, "So you'd finally let your hatred towards Cocoonians go?"

Fang thought for awhile and shook her head slightly, "No, not all. But maybe… just maybe I could let it go this time. To say that I'd completely let it go is definitely a lie, after all such a scarred childhood stays with you forever, you see." Fang said with a sad smile then followed by a sigh before she continued, "But it could probably work, letting go I mean. I'd always been intimidating and scary towards my past Cocoonian roommates and not surprising, they're afraid of me, but Lightning on the hand would choose to hit me in the face, so this just makes me feel that she's different from the others and I could probably get to know her, something tells me we're not so different aside from our race." A pause, then she went on, "I'd always been haunted by my hatred towards Cocoonians that's why I treated the ones from before the way I did, but this time I s'pose the occasion's different, she had earned my respect enough so I feel less of a thorn poking at my heart if I were to try and… befriend her. Maybe if I do get to get along with a Cocoonian, my hatred could ease away over time and I'll probably change my point of view towards Cocoonians too, like you said, not all are the same, right? Then, which means I get over my shadow and I could get along with my new roommate, it's a win-win situation. So, that was what I'd been thinking this whole time yep." Fang finished with a shy and awkward smile for pouring out all her thoughts, she really was not used to situations like these when they get to the matters of the heart.

Vanille smiled warmly and lovingly at her sister, she had been waiting for this moment for so, so long. Fang had been so filled with hatred in the past that it was hard to get through her thick hatred to her head, but finally today, she had made the choice herself to let the hatred go. Perhaps such a long time had actually washed some of the pain away from the woman, or perhaps Maker finally decided to help a caged soul like her to be freed. Either way, Vanille was more than happy to know that Fang decided to give it a go in changing her point of view and getting over her own shadow. "I'd know befriending her was your intention since the moment you told me how bothered you felt from that rejection of hers." She said with a teasing tone along with a smirk.

Fang smiled wryly, "Yea, yea, Miss Smarty-Pants." She paused and then a frown appeared, "However, I doubt it's going to be easy judging from the reaction I got from yesterday, she wouldn't even accept my help but shot me accusations instead. Apparently her hatred towards me hadn't gone away one bit since day one." She finished with a long sigh.

"Fang, nothing that turns out amazing at the end starts out easy, but as long as you don't give up, you'll make it." Vanille cheered.

The brunette scratched her head gently, "That's true but… I'm not sure where to start, like I said, she still hates me. I'm not sure how to approach her." She stated.

"Just be yourself, Fang, you're amazing as you are and soon she'll be good with you!" the red head said with a wide smile.

Fang arched an eyebrow, "Be myself? I doubt being teasing is gonna earn me any points from her. Say, you've got a few Cocoonian friends, don't you? Why not give me a few tips on how to approach them where they deem it friendly?"

"My tip is the same as the one I just gave you, just be yourself. They're humans too, Fang, they can feel your sincerity towards them if you really have it." Vanille said with a hand placed in front of her chest.

Fang frowned upon hearing that, "Did you forget what happened when I was _genuinely kind_ towards her last night? Apparently she couldn't _feel _it."

Vanille grabbed Fang's shoulders with both hands and her eyes turned into a stern and fiery look, "Listen, just don't give up and be determined about the matter. If you keep trying, she will eventually feel your genuineness and open up. Show her your fire in wanting to be friends with her, warm her ice with your passion! Savvy!?" she said with an enthusiastic tone, causing Fang to retract slightly from the younger Pulsian.

"Er… I doubt 'passion' is the right word to use, I don't think of her in that way." Fang stated.

Vanille rolled her eyes and shot Fang an annoyed look.

Fang gulped and nodded curtly, "Savvy, I'll keep trying." She said and managed a small awkward smile.

Vanille retracted her hands from Fang's shoulders and a bright smile returned to her face, "Good, I look forward to hearing good news from you!" With that, the red head turned around and continued to their next stop while humming away happily.

Fang's head immediately started thinking of various ways in approaching the pinkette, after promising the excited younger Pulsian that she would do her best and ended up failing might be worse than getting a roar from an Adamantoise. Although she doubted a better end will be waiting for her if she started disturbing the Cocoonian.

Either way, it's a definite death of her from Vanille if she don't at least try, the girl had always been wishing for her to get over her own shadows. At least, trying will probably grant her a 50% living rate.

* * *

**There are probably 3 parts altogether for this chapter of the story since it's about how Lightning and Fang gets to be friends. Read and review please! **


	5. Chapter 4-2

**A/N: Yep, new chapter continuing from chapter 4's part 1. This chapter here is quite short, so the last part of this chapter will probably be a long one, I didn't try to increase the length of this chapter because I figured that the next part continuing from the end of this part here will definitely go on into a long, long chapter, so I decided to put it in the next part. Anyway, I'll stop talking here first, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of FFXIII.**

* * *

Put Your Trust In Me

Chapter 4 – Friend or Foe (Part 2)

Lightning's eyes widened at the unexpected news, "_WHAT?" _She said through the phone, not believing what she had just heard.

"I'm sorry, Lightning… It's my fault." A deep, manly voice sounded from the earpiece.

Lightning closed her eyes and pinched her nose bridge in an attempt to calm herself, she was currently working in NORA as a barista for morning shift and losing her calm here would probably be the last thing on the to-do list. Peeling her eyes open tiredly but angrily, she managed through clenched teeth, "Snow, let me ask this one more time, is this for _real_?"

Snow gulped fearfully at the other side of the line, "Y-yes. Well… I was driving and then a kid just suddenly ran out of nowhere, I tried to avoid her so… I accidentally knocked into a streetlight…" he trailed off.

"Was Serah in the car with you?" Lightning asked with concern clearly laced in her voice, along with an underlying tone threatening to dismember his limbs if her sister was injured in the accident.

"No, no, no, no, no, she wasn't with me! I dropped her off in the university before this accident happened." Snow hastily explained in a worried and anxious tone.

Lightning released a sigh of relief upon hearing that, thank Maker that at least her sister was safe, if she was in the car along with this oaf she swore she was going to kill the man. "Why the hell were you driving _my _car?" now that the concern for Serah had settled down, her tone returned to a venomous one while interrogating Snow over the phone.

"W-well… I needed some form of transport today for my work so I asked Serah for help…" Snow admitted.

"How long had you been driving my car?" Lightning interjected sternly.

Snow gulped anxiously again, "Er… Just today…" he admitted timidly.

Lightning rubbed her temple to soothe the splitting headache that she was having. Since this morning when she woke up she was already having this mild headache and her whole body felt terribly hot but which she ignored since she had work to attend to. Listening to this, her headache only doubled at the thought of Serah not having a car to drive to college, which meant the younger Farron will have to go through the trouble of taking several trains before getting to Bodhum University since their house was located quite far away from the building, and also the thought of extra money to fix the car – which Snow probably couldn't afford so much but probably only a bit, which was most likely why he called her now too and also to inform of her about the car – made her headache tripled trying to come up with the extra money, she had only started working yesterday and her personal bank account had barely left much. Although she had another bank account which had quite an amount in it but there was no way that she would use them, after all the money saved in the other account was for Serah's studies. Groaning in frustration, she continued, "Just one day of driving my car and you've got into an accident, you're just so… so… urgh." Lightning stopped, the throbbing pain in her head hindered her in the process of forming words. After a couple of seconds she went on, "RIDICULOUS." She finally spat out angrily.

Snow sensed the spiking anger and quickly apologize, last thing he wanted was for Lightning to strangle him for getting her car into such a state and causing Serah inconveniences, "I'm sorry, Lightning, I really am so sorry, I'll be responsible for getting the car fixed!" he said apologetically.

Lightning huffed, "You? Be responsible? Don't make me laugh, your amount of salary could barely afford your own living, and you tell me you're going to get the car fixed? How? Don't bloody tell me you're going to fix it yourself because I don't trust you one bit, and don't you dare getting it fixed in some unauthorized workshop just because it's cheap. Get it fixed in an authorized workshop and you'll pay partial amount while I cover the rest." She said angrily with her eyes closed tightly to fight away the pain coursing through her head and as well as her body.

"R-Right… Thanks, Lightning, I'm sorry for causing you so much trouble, I'll be sure to pay you back I promise! And I'll also accompany Serah to and fro the university so you don't have to worry so much!" the man said with a sincere tone.

Snow was Lightning's least favorite person of all time – though now it had changed to Fang –, mainly because he became Serah's boyfriend and he became the reason of argument between Serah and her in the past, which got the two of them into a terrible relationship due to Lightning's stubbornness at insisting the younger Farron to break up with the blonde but Serah will have none of it. Thankfully, someone had helped them in resolving the matter so that Lightning and Serah could return to how they used to be before, though with some notable changes from Lightning after that. Snow had been with Serah for a couple of years now, probably for four years now that Serah was eighteen, and the now nineteen-year-old man had shown deep affectionate and care for the younger Farron over the years and it had not dissipated one bit even till now, which eventually made Lightning softened her thorns slightly against the man, admitting that perhaps her point of view towards the blonde was a little too extreme and stereotyping. However, his inability in providing enough for himself still made Lightning disapprove of him somewhat, but since Snow could show his genuine care and love for her younger sister over the years, Lightning had been slightly kinder to the man, just like now, "Forget it, save the money for better uses instead. Make sure that you take care of Serah while I'm away, or else-" Lightning stopped midway as a series of vigorous coughs suddenly attacked her, forcing her to stop her threats halfway.

Snow heard the coughs and asked worriedly, "Lightning? Are you okay?"

After the coughs ended, Lightning cleared her throat painfully and struggled through the phone, "I'm fine, get the car fixed as soon as possible and send me the bill." Her coughs resumed, after awhile she went on, "Snow."

"Yea?" he asked with a concerned frown, though unseen through the phone.

"Don't tell Serah." Lightning commanded sternly as another series of coughs invaded.

Snow's frown deepened, he could tell that Lightning was definitely sick by the sound of it, and she had no intention of telling Serah. But he couldn't do it, he couldn't hide it from Serah that her beloved sister was sick, Serah will definitely beat him up for not informing her and it was also for Lightning's own good if her younger sister were to call and check things up, after all Lightning was pretty much a lone wolf there he thought, so some amount of concern would probably speed up recovery knowing that someone cares, at least this was what the man thought, he was a little naïve at some times. So, his decision was made, betraying his thoughts, he answered, "I will."

"Good." With that, Lightning hung up.

Snow brought the phone from his ear into his sight, then started typing in Serah's phone number, "Definitely tell Serah." He finished his sentence from earlier, after all, Serah was the one that he would be spending his remaining lifetime with and not Lightning, he didn't want to have an early death from the younger Farron, which was probably as scary as Lightning when she was mad.

XXX

Lightning exited the staff's room and entered back into the bar with Lebreau after her call with Snow ended. Walking back into the bar, she stumbled slightly from the headache causing her sight to be a little hazy, she knew she was definitely sick by the looks of it, but she ignored. Now, she needed to work even harder with the need to come up with extra money. Once she was beside Lebreau, the dark haired owner looked to the pinkette whose expression was a tad too pale along with a frown as she went back to attending the orders.

Worried, she asked with concern audible in her voice, "Lightning…? Are you okay? You seem… troubled. And sickly."

Lightning looked to the woman and nodded weakly, "Yea, I'm fine." She managed.

Lebreau arched an eyebrow, "Really? Okay…" she said trailing off there, then she continued, "Look, I know we haven't known each other for long, but if you've something troubling you, you could tell me, maybe I could help. I've a lot of contacts in various areas." She said with a smile along with a wink.

Listening to Lebreau, Lightning gave it some thought, maybe the woman could help, but she only hoped Lebreau wouldn't mind her working an extra elsewhere for money though she didn't really have any way out, since the woman offered, might as well try asking. After awhile of hesitation, she started out slowly, "I… have financial difficulties, I'm wondering if there's any work that you know of out there that I could earn some extra income?"

Lebreau gave a thoughtful look as the sentence registered in her head, then after awhile she looked back to Lightning, "I do, actually. Do you play any instruments?"

The pinkette arched a quizzical eyebrow at the woman for the sudden question, and then she nodded, "I can play the acoustic guitar."

"Oh, can you perform with a guitar?" She asked.

Lightning's other eyebrow arched as well, she knew where this was going but she wasn't sure if she wanted to get into performance jobs, "I can but…"

"Can you sing?" Lebreau continued her question excitedly, not letting the chance to slip away.

"I… could, but I-" Lightning wanted to voice her opinions but Lebreau interjected once more.

"Then how about you perform during our entertainment period at night? I'd set up a stage there in this recent renovation but I haven't found anyone who's willing to perform on stage yet, and for those who are willing to perform I pay them well too." Lebreau said enthusiastically along with a wide smile.

"But I'm not that skilled, and I don't really like performing publicly." Lightning said as she held up both hands in an attempt to reject the offer.

Lebreau's smile turned into a pout, "How about you give it a try first? Don't outright reject me that fast. Plus actually I only have this job in my mind and I don't have any other jobs to recommend, it's not that hard, just sing a song or two and it's good enough!" the woman tried her best in trying to convince the pinkette, she had her own intentions in doing so actually, partly was because she really needed someone to drive up the atmosphere during entertainment period – and of course it will be better if it was someone from her bar – and also the stage that she had built there shouldn't go to waste, and also mainly because she was curious of how the pinkette could play a guitar and sing along, it would probably be a sight to behold. Well, to her at the very least.

Lightning frowned slightly and she was forced to reconsider the option since Lebreau said she didn't have any other job opportunities out there, and with such limited time she could not go around looking for other extra jobs. The pinkette was not one for show and would preferably not be in the spotlight of anything, especially in performances such as these. However, as much as she disliked it, she didn't have much choice at the moment since she really needed the extra money for the car and Serah's sake. Giving in with a defeated sigh, she continued, "Fine… how will you pay me?"

Lebreau smiled widely, "I'd pay you fifty gils for one performance."

Lightning's eyes widened with surprise, "Fifty for a song?" That was apparently too good of a deal, she was suspecting that there might be a catch.

Lebreau nodded, "Like I said, I pay well, I'm willing to pay just anything to get the bar's business up and on the go, I'm confident that some entertainment would get the bar's business coming in. If the entertainment period is a success, then the business would come booming and by then fifty gils are nothing at all."

"But I already told you I'm not _that _skilled, are you sure you're willing to pay for that?" Lightning questioned again.

"Relax, I trust you. Your voice is melodic enough while you're talking, I doubt your _skills _are any worse than mine. And I can sing pretty good too." The woman said with a thumbs-up along with a smile.

Lightning arched an eyebrow at the statement, "Then why don't you go on stage instead?"

Lebreau laughed, "Sweetheart, I already have my hands full with tending the bar, and leaving you alone here to tend the bar while you're only here a day or two is hardly an option that I'd go for. Perhaps I'll try performing once you'd familiar yourself more with the place. You'd be _shocked_ at my performance." She said with a playful wink.

The pinkette darted her eyes away awkwardly before uttering, "Right…" The images played in Lightning's mind were pretty disturbing when Lebreau had emphasized on the 'shocked' word and accompanied by a flirty wink.

The woman sensed the pinkette's disturbed stance and chuckled, amused at the display, "I meant you'd be shocked at my singing, if _something else_ was what you were thinking. Although I wouldn't mind if your head drifted to _that_ area." Again, Lebreau had decided to increase her amusement by sending a flirtatious wink at the pinkette.

Lightning frowned and a troubled expression now plastered on her face, the flirts were a tad too much, so Lightning decided to change the topic, "Er, right. So can I start on Monday? I don't have my guitar with me today…"

Lebreau nodded, "Of course. So, how much do you need?" she asked.

Lightning turned to look at the other woman with a puzzled look, "What?" she queried, not quite grasping the meaning.

"You said you were having financial difficulties, I could pay you the money you need in advance and you could perform in a later period." Lebreau explained.

Lightning's face turned into one of astonishment again, "Really?" she asked with a surprised tone.

The woman nodded, "Yea, so how much do you need?"

Lightning had a puzzled frown plastered on her face then, she couldn't understand why the woman was or could be so nice and trusting towards her, "Aren't you afraid that I might just run away with it?" she asked.

Lebreau gave it a brief thought then a smile formed on her face, "I think I could trust you, even though we have only met a few times but I've a feeling that you're an honest person. Besides, if you were to try to get away with it, I could always get Fang to chain you up and bring you back here. So yea, nothing to worry about."

No wonder the woman was so calm, she had a plan B beforehand. But nevertheless, listening to what Lebreau had to say made Lightning put all her doubts and suspicions of the woman aside and she was grateful for the woman's kindness in helping her, "Thank you." She said with a faint smile once again gracing her lips.

Lebreau eyed Lightning's lips hungrily, "You know, or you could do less a performance and return the favor to me by a different means."

Lightning arched a quizzical eyebrow at that, "What other different means?" she asked, totally oblivious to the woman's hungry gaze.

"Your lips seem delicious enough." Lebreau teased with a smirk and she licked her lower lip in a way that sent a shiver running down Lightning's spine upon hearing that, immediately understanding what the woman meant by 'different means'.

Lightning gulped and backed away considerably, "I'll stick to performing."

Lebreau chuckled at the reaction and response, then put on a slightly disappointed look, "Too bad."

XXX

Fang had been sitting at her post for more than an hour since nightshift started and the bar was already crowded with people, however it seemed to be still a little too early for any trouble to occur. So now here she was, yawning due to boredom. Although the less trouble the better for NORA, but hey, she was hired here _just_ _for _trouble, so expecting some was normal. Fortunately for Fang she need not worry too much about not having any of a mess, trouble always had a way of showing and it was only a matter of time till 1 out of 10 drunkards cause one, she will just have to wait for a bit later.

On the other hand though, all these waiting with nothing to do was getting a tad too boring for the brunette. Saturday usually meant people ordering loads of beer and liquor at the table, so there wouldn't be orders constantly bombarding the bar except if there were any special orders for drinks like cocktails and such. Looking over to the bar, Fang saw that Lebreau and Lightning were having a conversation – more like Lebreau talked and Lightning only listened and nodded – with nothing much to do at the moment. Seeing that the bar was also quite free of occupants except for a few drunks already knocked out on the bar, Fang made her way through the crowd and to the bar in an attempt to get some distraction from the dark haired owner, at least some chitchat would suffice.

Lebreau saw the approaching figure of Fang and waved a hand at her, "Why hello, why are you here? Jealous?" she teased with a wink.

Fang managed a brittle smile and rolled her eyes at the woman's attempt at such teases, she knew better than anyone how hard it would be to get someone like her jealous. "Oh? What makes you think that?" she said.

Lebreau shrugged and smiled playfully, "Since I'm paying more attention to Ms Pretty Lady over here than you."

Fang laughed, "I think she saved me the overflowing attention from you instead, although I'm jealous." She said with a deadpan expression.

Lebreau's ears perked up, expecting something more, "Oh? Of what?"

"Of you guys having each other as company. Well, more like you're enjoying more of the company than her though," Fang said and paused halfway to glance at Lightning who was standing a notable distance away from the two women ever since Fang arrived at the bar, returning her gaze back to the dark haired owner, she went on, "You gonna consider keeping me entertained for now until trouble stirs? I'm really bored." She said with a charming grin which she knew Lebreau wouldn't and couldn't resist, most of the time Fang got her way with the owner using this tactic.

The woman's hazel eyes lit up happily at the grin, "How would you like me to keep you entertained?" her voice dropped to a lower tone accompanied by a flirty smirk as she inched closer to Fang.

Fang backed away slightly and stopped her from inching forward with a finger poking lightly at the woman's forehead, "Just some chitchat will do, 'Breau. You just don't give up, do you?" she said with a smirk.

Lebreau chuckled and reversed back to her original position, "Oh c'mon, no harm trying."

"Except I'd made myself clear enough that I don't touch anyone that isn't my cup of tea, which means trying won't get you anywhere y'know." Fang said.

Lebreau shrugged, "Well, maybe if one day you find yourself partnerless you could come find me if I'm lucky enough, I'd take you." She winked at the brunette.

Fang arched an eyebrow, "Why would you say that I'd end up without a partner?"

"Just saying, seeing that you haven't been in a relationship at all since I knew you two years back. So, if I'm not your cup of tea, what is?" Lebreau asked with curiosity hinted in her eyes and voice.

Fang gave the question some thought, she had a few relationships in the past, but they were all half-hearted, none of them were actually sincere about it but merely after her looks and such, and this applied to both men and women. Fang had been on both sides before and personally she preferred the soft touches of a woman than a man that couldn't even match her strength. Although Fang got into relationships easily in the past, but there was not a relationship that didn't ended because of the other party wishing for sex, and of course Fang said no. Sure, teasing and sometimes being flirtatious were her nature, but that did not mean that she was someone to succumb to lust that easily, and with someone who just purely wanted to get laid. Fang had a clear set of mind, and she was most probably the last of her clan since the war that took her parents' life back then wiped out almost whole of the village if not all, so she had a name to uphold too. Besides, if Fang were to get into sex, it would be with someone that she loves wholeheartedly and someone that will be willing to stay with her for the rest of her life. Her condition was simple really, as long as someone loves her unreservedly in return and willing to stay, it would suffice, Fang didn't need her to be perfection. However, unfortunately for the brunette, none of the relationships in the past were actually serious about the matter, both men and women were just either curious or hormone-ridden prompting them to get into some pleasant aerobic activities which takes place in bed. Although, Fang was not too sad about it, honestly she did not find herself loving the other party too much as well in most of the relationships, she got into one just because it helped fill time and boredom, and sometimes she just wanted some company. Then there was one that she fell hard for and she loved the woman a lot, she thought perhaps this could work out, thinking that she was different from the rest, but it turned out that she was wrong again and it thoroughly broke her heart. Ever since this last one that Fang had, the brunette had never gotten into any other after that till now, and it had been a solid two years since then. With a half bitter smile, she started out slowly, "Well… I don't need them to be perfect. As long as they are as devoted as me in return for my devotion towards them and they are willing to stay by me, then I'm good."

Lebreau eyed the brunette's smile carefully, "I sensed a bitter past."

Fang shrugged, "It's in the past and it doesn't matter anymore."

"Uh-huh, even with that bitter smile showing?" Lebreau said with a smile mixed of care and concern.

"Ha, this? It's not because of the last one that I'm smiling bitterly, it's just thinking back, it's pretty disappointing that none were actually serious about it, not a tiny bit. At least I had a bit in every single one." Fang said with a sigh.

Lebreau chuckled, "Not all are such a romantic soul like you are."

"What? This is hardly romantic, it's the one condition of keeping the relationship alive at the very least!" Fang countered with a slight frown.

The dark haired woman nodded, "Yes, yes, I get it and I agree as well. Let's just put it this way, the ones you had in the past were just not right, including the one that hurt you the most. The right one will come to you eventually, don't worry. Know this, some things in life just aren't meant to be yours, and the best things in life come with a paid price called 'time'." Lebreau said with a smile as she patted Fang's head gently.

Fang caught the hand and took it away before it could ruffle her hair, "Coming from you isn't very convincing, y'know?" she said with a smirk.

"Whoa hey, I believe in the right one too! Just that a little company sometime wouldn't hurt, it's really lonely when you don't know when the right one will come into your life." Lebreau voiced out as her smile turned into a playful one.

Fang rolled her eyes, she wondered sometimes how the woman could just easily get into sex. Perhaps it was really pleasant and enjoyable, but she would not know until she found the right one. "Too many companies aren't exactly good too, is it?"

Lebreau hummed at the statement, "True, but beats boredom. But hey, don't you have any other… qualities that you'd prefer to have on your future partner? Like if she could cook and such."

Fang gave it some thought again, after awhile she spoke up, "I don't usually hold too much of expectations… but if you asked me this way, then I could probably list a few."

"So? So? What is it?" Lebreau asked excitedly with her ears ready and on the go, interest visibly written all over her face.

The brunette let a smirk crept to her lips, "Do I get a free drink for filling your curiosity?"

Lebreau shot her a look, finally today she had gotten Fang to tell her more about her personal life and preferences and by the looks of it, Fang was willing to spill more. With a huff, she went on, "Fine, no alcoholic drinks since you're on duty, I'll get you a glass of freshly squeezed juice alright? Now, shoot!"

Fang chuckled lightly before she started, "Hm… I'd prefer someone around my height, preferably slightly shorter than me. Someone who could fight and hold her ground well, if she could be on par with me it'd be good too I guess, so maybe I could spar with her sometimes and she could protect herself too, that means I needn't worry too much." Fang paused, saying all these qualities were making her feel weird, but she didn't know what was actually weird. It felt like she had someone in mind when she said all these, but not a clear picture of _who_. Shrugging the feeling aside, she continued, "Honest," a pause, "Not as flirtatious as I am or else there will probably be trouble," a pause again, "Proud of herself but not too proud," Fang's mind started drifting off as she listed on, "Confident…" Fang said as she trailed off slightly and her eyes unconsciously glanced over to Lightning who was standing a far distance from them, preparing drinks in the process, "Have gentle but strong features…" the brunette's emerald eyes were still unconsciously focused on Lightning as she continued, "Doesn't back down from a challenge…" Fang went on as her lips twitched in a way that indicated a smile forming, "A strong sense of justice…" the moment she said it, she stopped, the scene of Lightning protecting the little boy replayed in her mind's eye, causing Fang to halt all her thoughts and snap back to her senses. _Why am I thinking this? This strange feeling… Never mind, it's probably nothing. _Peeling her eyes away from the pinkette, she continued, "Preferably a beauty of course." She ended with a weakly forced smile, trying her best to hide her strange thoughts from surfacing on her face or else Lebreau might question her again. The woman was especially good at seeing through people after all.

Unfortunately for Fang, Lebreau had already seen through the brunette the moment her eyes drifted away from her towards the pinkette, and listening to the qualities which Fang mentioned, Lebreau could easily relate a few closely to a certain someone not too far from where she stood. With a smirk across her lips, she started teasing the brunette, "So… Someone like… Lightning? She did manage to land a, no, I should say 'hits' on you during the fight you two had with each other." her eyes darted playfully towards where Lightning stood.

Fang's eyes widened with shock, partly because Lebreau had pointed out that it was Lightning which surprisingly was the person that Fang was unconsciously describing when her mind wandered somewhere, she knew she felt that the traits she described was familiar in a way but it didn't came to her entirely as a clear picture until Lebreau had finally pointed it out for Fang, and also she was shocked at herself for describing someone as close as Lightning. However, even if Lightning was probably the one that she had been thinking in her mind, she would never consider her as a possibility of a partner. It was obvious, simply because Lightning was a Cocoonian, and she could not bring herself to have a Cocoonian as her lifetime partner. After all, it was the Cocoonians that killed her parents, being with a Cocoonian somehow felt like a betrayal to her parents for Fang. At the very least, being friends with a Cocoonian was still considered alright, but a lover? Perhaps not. Shaking the thoughts of Lightning as a possible companion off, she made a face at Lebreau as she continued, "Are you nuts? I don't think of her like that, she's a Cocoonian. Perhaps someone like her but I'm sticking to Gran Pulsians."

Lebreau nodded thoughtfully with arched eyebrows and an understanding smile, "I see. So you do hate the woman eh? Should've thought of it when I saw the reactions you two gave each other."

Fang shook her head, "No, well, I don't hate her anymore as a person and because of being a Cocoonian. In fact, I've made up my mind to try and y'know… get on good terms with her, try to be friends. It's just that having a Cocoonian as a lover is out of the question."

"Oh? You don't hate Cocoonians anymore? That's a sudden change. What made you change?" Lebreau queried.

Fang stole a glance at Lightning, "A change of mind, perhaps not all are the same." She said with a smile.

The woman nodded with a thoughtful look, "I see, well then, you've your way of being friends with her and I'll have my way in trying to seduce her without you as a competition then, good for me." She said with a wink along with a smirk.

Fang made a gesture to go for it, "Suit yourself, though I highly doubt you'll succeed, she shows no interest in anyone, especially Gran Pulsians. She hates 'em, so she hates me too actually. To be frank, I bet it'd be bloody hard to get close enough to her and become friends really."

"Aww, really? She seems to be pretty nice to me."

"Because you're the boss here." Fang said with a matter-of-fact tone.

"Oh c'mon, you see how I don't make myself all high'n'mighty here even if I'm the boss, clearly there's nothing to do with me being the owner here. I'm only a half Pulsian too, perhaps it doesn't tick her off that much." Lebreau tried to debate.

Fang shrugged, "Well, you're the one going for it, not me. So I don't really need to debate this matter with you."

"I do hope she gives me some thought though, she's such a beauty. You know, she plays the guitar too, I bet she's a real charmer when she sings. She's performing for us starting next Monday." Lebreau said as her eyes travelled to Lightning who was now wiping dry the washed glasses.

Fang's mouth gaped open at what she just heard, Lightning could play a guitar and _sing_? She was worried if the glass might break, hopefully it won't. Fang thought it that way was not because she still hated the woman or anything, but it was simply hard to believe someone like her – which was deemed rough and tough – could play a guitar and sing along, it was surprising for Fang to say the least. "Are you sure she wouldn't get our eardrums begging for mercy? I mean, she doesn't look like one who could sing."

Lebreau wiggled one finger at Fang, "Ah, ah, ah, don't judge a book by its cover. I've confidence in my decision." She smirked.

Fang made a look, "More like you just wanted to see her play a guitar and sing for yourself just to fulfill your own desires."

Lebreau's smirk turned into a grin, "You're partly right, but the stage there shouldn't be just for show, since I haven't gotten anyone in to perform yet, why not give her a go at it? Maybe she might be surprisingly good, her voice sounds soothing and smooth as silk."

Fang stared at her blankly, yep, the woman definitely just wanted to fill her own desires by watching her new 'goddess' sing. "Yes, yes, we'll see." She said plainly.

"Let's have a bet then, if she could sing, you'll give me a kiss on the cheek." Lebreau suggested.

"And if she couldn't?"

"One week of alcoholic drinks for you, drink all you want while you're off duty."

Fang looked to Lightning who was walking over with the same stoic expression and she was thoroughly convinced that she could not sing, and also due to the temptation of one week's supply of alcohol made her think less too. Without much thought, she agreed, "Deal, I'm getting my drinks." Fang said as she held out her hand for a deal-made-handshake.

"And I'm getting my kiss." Lebreau said with a confident smirk as she gave Fang's hand a firm shake. As Lightning walked past her, she called out to the pinkette, "Hey, Lightning, come here for a bit."

Lightning looked to the two women and approached them, "What is it?" she struggled out, her voice now sounding scratchy and sickly.

Lebreau's smirk was immediately wiped off, hearing the pinkette's voice made her worried – and was also partly worried for their deal which was only agreed just a second ago –, "Lightning? What happened to your voice? Are you alright?" she asked with concern noticeable in her voice along with a worried frown.

Lightning nodded and she was about to reply, but then stopped due to sudden invasion of vigorous coughs. After the coughs subsided, she struggled her next few words out again, "I'm fine."

Fang looked at the pinkette with worried and unconvinced eyes, eyeing Lightning's reddened cheeks, she countered the woman, "You don't seem fine, your cheeks are a tad too red even under the dim lights here. Are you having a fever?"

Lightning managed a weak glare over to Fang before returning her gaze to Lebreau, "I'm fine, really." She insisted.

Lebreau was not convinced as well at the quite sickly tone, she held a hand up and placed the back of her hand against Lightning's forehead when she was not quite aware – since Lightning was also a little blurry herself at the moment. The moment her hand touched her forehead, she retracted right away and a shocked expression emerged on her face, "Holy Etro, I felt like I was touching a boiling kettle! You're so hot, it's definitely not a normal body temperature. I insist that you go home and rest now." she said sternly.

"I can still work." The pinkette insisted with a frown.

"I'm very surprised you could actually work even with this high fever, but that's not the point here, if you're sick you need rest, I'm not those crazy bosses out there who torments their employees to work even if they are sick, y'hear me? Grab your stuffs and head home now, I'll have no more coming from you." Lebreau stood her ground firmly with her arms crossed, not allowing any ground for debates.

"But… the bar…" Lightning tried again.

"No more 'buts', I can handle the bar just fine since it's Saturday and not like I haven't done this alone before, so you can stop worrying and go straight home, take a shower, eat your medicines and then rest. When you recovered, you'll just have to sing properly for me on Monday and I'll let you off the hook for not telling me that you're sick again today, okay? Get going." Lebreau ushered the pinkette gently towards the staff room, damn even her body felt terribly hot with the clothes separating her hands from direct contact. After she had made Lightning exited the bar into the staff room, she reappeared at the bar again and sauntered over to Fang, "You, follow her, with that kind of fever I'm afraid that she might just knock out on the way back."

Fang stood immediately, that was exactly her intention too since she was also worried for the pinkette, but then she stopped as a thought crossed her mind, "But it's still early, what if there's trouble when I'm not around?"

"I'll get Gadot out from the kitchen, his size can manage it, there won't be too much of trouble I s'pose, if Gadot can't handle it, there's still the two monkeys that could be of help." Lebreau said as she waved a hand at a general direction where a blonde haired boy and a teal haired boy running around serving the customers.

Fang nodded, "Alright, I'll be back as soon as I escort her back to the dorm."

Lebreau shook her head, "No, just stay there and take care of her, she looks like she needs it. Don't worry, Fang, if I say I could handle it, then I could. And besides… one week supply of alcoholic drinks for you is too costly for me honestly, the way you drink is absolutely horrifying."

Fang rolled her eyes, "After all it was still just about the deal eh." She said with a smirk.

"Don't get me wrong, I care for the pinkette too, though I'm only being honest that I'm also worried about the deal, it wouldn't be fair if I lost because she's sick! Alright enough talk, get moving! Shoo!" Lebreau said as she waved a hand at Fang gesturing for her to move out.

Fang nodded and complied without another word.

XXX

Fang had tried to help Lightning back to the dorm over the course of the journey from the bar since the pinkette was threatening to tumble over when she walked, but she would have none of it and shot a menacing glare at Fang whenever the brunette tried to approach her. Fang wondered about where she got the energy to still glare at her when she was having such a high fever. Even so, Fang had continued to follow closely though with a fair distance between them since Lightning was preventing her from getting any closer than 5 meters, but she had managed to get a tad closer so if Lightning did trip over in her blurry state she could at least rush to her within milliseconds.

And she was right, when they were almost back to their room in the hallway, Lightning accidentally tripped over an uneven patch on the carpet and almost fell, but saved from Fang's immediate grip on her arm, keeping her from falling. The pinkette however felt irritated at the contact and pulled away roughly, the woman was usually closed off from physical contacts already, so when she was sick she tended to get even more aggravated if someone touched her. Fang frowned at the reaction she got and clenched her hand which helped Lightning earlier into a fist, a little frustrated at how stubborn the woman could be, since she was sick she could at least rely on someone for a bit, but instead she just pushed people away.

After pulling her arm from Fang's grip, she exhaled hot air in a show of frustration. She didn't need Fang to follow her back, she could take care of herself, but Lebreau just had to have the brunette following her back. It made her felt like a kid who needed to be taken care of, and it only irked her further. The splitting headache was already enough to kill her, and the added annoyance only intensified it more. With a hand weakly pressed against the wall, she continued to make her way back to the room as she used the wall to support herself.

Watching the stubborn woman inched forward, Fang sighed and followed suit as well. When they were almost reaching their room, Lightning's hand slid from the wall thinking that she should be fine making to the door without any trouble. In her haste towards the door which was now only a few steps away, her sight started to fade out slowly into darkness. Holding back onto the wall, she shook her head slightly and closed her eyes tightly, then blinked open a few times to chase away the darkness around the edges of her sight, but it did not disappear and it only increased slowly as her sight slowly went blurry. Forcing herself, she tried to move again but her knees went weak and she stumbled over as darkness took over her.

Fang quickly moved in and caught the pinkette before she fell onto the carpeted floor, "Oy, oy!" she called out, seeing that no resistance came from the woman.

No response.

"Tch… So much for not needing my help now that you'd fainted." Fang said as she carried Lightning up in her arms in bridal style. Once she stabilized the both of them with the pinkette in her arms, she moved to the door. When they were at the door, Fang struggled carrying Lightning with one arm while her other hand fiddled in her pouch to get the keys out.

After Fang successfully opened the door, her hand returned to support behind Lightning's knees and she readjusted the woman in her arms before entering the room. Once they were in the room, Fang steadily made her way to the pinkette's bed and placed her down gently. Standing up straight and watching the passed out woman, Fang sighed accompanied by a shook of her head at the current situation laid before her. Then Fang thought of what Vanille had said to her earlier this morning.

'_If you're sincere in your actions, the person could definitely feel it. Just don't give up and you'll succeed in getting Lightning to at least be less hateful and then warm up towards you. You just have to keep in mind to be sincere in whatever you do towards her and be _friendly. _Remember, you promised you'll do your best in befriending her, don't fail me!'_

With a small smile across her lips, she nodded to it, "Alright, be nice." Fang said to herself.

The brunette then headed into her bathroom and fetched a basin filled with cold water together with a clean towel – by clean, it's absolutely clean, not that it had been on the floor before – out into the room. Placing the basin of cold water down of the pinkette's study desk, she rinsed the clean towel in it and then bringing it up to squeeze it until it was almost dry before she started to wipe the pinkette's face. Gently, she wiped Lightning's now rosy cheeks clean of dust and sweat. Eyeing the woman's uniform that was buttoned way up to the top, she figured that it would probably be too tight and uncomfortable for the sleeping woman, so Fang moved her hand and gingerly unbuttoned the two top buttons, allowing for airflow. Once that was done, Fang stood and repeated the same process from earlier with the towel a few more times before settling the towel down on the feverish pinkette's forehead.

Afterwards, Fang allowed the woman to rest and went to make a phone call to check if NORA was doing alright. It was proven that Lebreau's words were true, her worries were unnecessary as the woman on the other line yelled at her to stop worrying since Gadot had already threw two guys out without any help. Chuckling, she nodded to the noisy woman commanding her to take care of the pinkette and before she could finished, Fang hung up on her with a smirk. Later, she went and took a shower seeing that there was not a need to return to NORA for the night.

After the shower, Fang returned to Lightning's side and checked the woman's temperature. Unfortunately, the fever has not gone down one bit even with the help of a wet towel. Seeing that it was quite serious, the brunette decided to take a walk to Vanille's room since the girl was specialized in herbs and medicines, perhaps she would know of something that might help with the fever.

Turned out Fang was right, Vanille had a couple of herbs and medicines which were used to treat fever. Grabbing the one that works the best, the red head handed over to Fang and explained how the herbs needed to be boiled with water and then feed the water to Lightning. After making sure that there will be no side effects such as purging and whatnot, Fang took the herbs from a pouting Vanille and jogged back to her room.

Once she was back in her room, Fang immediately went to work as she searched the kitchen for a kettle then filling it with water before bringing it over to the stove and started boiling it. When the water started to form bubbles around the edge, Fang took the herbs and wanted to throw it in but second thought, it was better to run it with water first for a bit before directly throwing it into the boiling water. Last thing she wanted was for Lightning to get diarrhea.

Letting the water simmered for about ten to fifteen minutes later with the herbs in it, Fang turned the fire off and took the kettle off the stove. Grabbing a clean cup, she poured the hot water into it and then let it cooled down before feeding it to Lightning, she would not want to get the pinkette to burn her lips or tongue and after that waking up and take revenge against her. When she touched the cup again after a couple of minutes and it was warm, she picked up the cup and walked to sit by Lightning's bed side. Slowly, she managed to get Lightning up from bed and then brought the cup to the pinkette's reddish lips, then gently tilted the cup to get the warm herb water into the woman's mouth, being careful in the volume to not choke her. Once Fang fed all of the water to Lightning, she placed the cup on the study desk and let the pinkette leaned against her for a bit to allow the water to flow down first. Watching Lightning's sleeping face frowned slightly, Fang could not help but frowned as well, even in her sleep the woman had the ability to frown, prompting the brunette to think that the pinkette must still be in pain or having a nightmare during her sleep due to her current sufferings. Bringing her hand up, Fang gently poked a finger in between Lightning's eyebrows then stayed there for a few seconds, then miraculously her frown slowly disappeared and Fang retracted her hand and continued to look at the woman's sleeping face. When Lightning was sleeping, her face was so peaceful and of course much, much less hostile than she was awake with that stoic expression along with that hint of threat underlying in her eyes, it did not occur to Fang that Lightning had such a peaceful side like this one until now that she had finally seen it. It was not strange for Fang to think like this, after all all they did in the past one and a half months were nothing more than glaring, scowling, and ignoring each other.

As Fang continued to watch on the pinkette's sleeping features, she could not help but think that the woman indeed possessed such gentle but strong features, and the pinkette was absolutely beautiful Fang had to admit. Though Pulsian women were not bad, but Fang could never find one quite like Lightning, her looks held an indescribable aura around her, it was like she could be thoroughly strong, but also be very gentle as well if she wanted to, and as if she could be cold as ice, but perhaps she could also be passionate like a burning fire. Although for Fang, cold as ice was more likely for her to describe the pinkette.

While she continued to examine the pinkette's features closely, she saw a strain of pink hair sticking onto her cheek, so once again she brought her hand up and brushed it away. When she brushed her fingers gently against her cheeks in an attempt to brush away the strains of hair, Lightning suddenly stirred in her sleep, causing Fang to frantically retrieve her hand and attempted to lay Lightning back down, but then she stopped when she felt the pinkette tensed and heard the mutterings.

"Mom… Dad… I will protect Serah… I promise… Rest… in peace…" Lightning muttered softly in her sleep as her frown returned.

Hearing that, the first thing that came into Fang's mind was that Lightning must have a painful past, and her gut feeling was telling her that it was just like hers, perhaps their past were not so different at all. Suddenly, a bitter feeling tugged at her heart, feeling sorry for the pinkette, there was only one thing that came into her mind that time that will probably put the woman back at ease.

Holding the sick woman closer, she whispered softly in her ears, "We know, we trust you."

After Fang whispered those words to Lightning, the frown on her face had evidently disappeared and replaced with a tiny, almost unnoticeable smile. Seeing that the woman had relaxed in her arms, Fang let a half smile hung off her lips as well as she gently laid Lightning back onto her bed. Later, she got up and took the towel to rinse it with cold water again before placing it back on Lightning's forehead, then leaving the pinkette to rest for the night.

Later into the night, Fang went to check again to see if Lightning's fever had subsided and thankfully, when the back of her hand came into contact with the pinkette's forehead, it did not felt like she was touching a boiling kettle anymore and her cheeks had became a softer tint of pink. After Fang was done checking up on Lightning, she went to bed earlier as well for the night. Perhaps she should cook a pot of porridge tomorrow morning.

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**So how was it up until here? Hope it's not too disappointing to you readers. If you can, kindly review about how you feel about the story regarding how it's doing! If there's some improvements that I need to make, I'll definitely do my best to improve.**

**Also, aside from this, I think I'd like to share with you guys some of my thoughts about the story. I'd read the reviews from previous chapters, there's a few reviews that actually caught my attention, but I'll share one that I particularly noted down.**

**There is the comment about Fang caving in faster. She could get over it faster because she had Cocoonian roommates in the past, so she had more experience dealing with Cocoonians, so that's why it's easier for her. And right, about their pasts and hatred, I'd revealed that Fang had this hatred in her for 16 years, which is a long time now, so I think it's about time a poor soul like her gets some release, I couldn't mention about Lightning's yet or else it's gonna be a spoiler! (since I don't think I had mentioned about Lightning's yet) **

**And also, I do notice that I had mainly focused more on Fang's thoughts and past for now, but don't worry later there will be Lightning's! Coming soon!**

**And thank you for a kind reader who pointed out my mistake in chapter 4, I had edited the chapter. Thanks for pointing it out!**

**Thank you for reading, next chapter should be up in a few days. Stay tuned! **


	6. Chapter 4-3

**A/N: Okay, a few days was a little exaggerating back there, this took more than just a few days. I apologize if this is a bit too long - or just plain long at that - but all these must be included to get a clearer picture. This chapter concludes the process of opening up and how they got better, next chapter will be the answer to Friend or Foe, though I'm pretty sure you guys know what the next chap's title will be.** **Nevertheless, enjoy and have a nice read!****  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of FFXIII.**

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Put Your Trust In Me

Chapter 4 – Friend of Foe (Part 3)

Next Morning

Lightning slowly peeled her eyes open as she woke to the smell of coffee and eggs in the morning. Blinking a few times to adjust her bleary sight, a hand came up tiredly to massage her temples, only to find a folded towel on her forehead. Frowning in confusion, she picked the towel up and looked at it. She could not recall anything about putting a towel, which was still partially wet, on her own forehead. In fact, now that her system slowly caught up, she did not have any memories of getting in bed either. Now that she thought about it, last thing she remembered was passing out in the corridor. So, how did she ended up in bed and to her surprise, her top two buttons had also been unbuttoned – though thankfully everything else stayed the way it was – and also with a towel on her forehead?

"Hey, you awake?" Fang's voice came from the joint kitchen of their room.

Lightning's eyes broadened with comprehension as she remembered Fang had followed her back together last night, so that was the missing piece of puzzle from her hazy memory of yesterday. This meant that all these only had one explanation for it.

Fang carried her back to bed, prepared the wet towel, AND unbuttoned her top two buttons. The last one was quite disturbing in Lightning's head though.

Albeit, how could this be? Fang, the woman who apparently hated her, took care of her while she passed out? Great, Lightning did not know what to expect from the woman, but there was two possibilities, either she was really just being kind and helpful or she was trying to frame her up with something – which she had no idea of what happened at all – while she passed out. Wait, that would actually explain the unbuttoning of the buttons. Maker, she was hoping that the latter was not what happened. Frowning as frustration slowly piling up due to the cluelessness state, she sat up with the intention of interrogating the brunette. To her surprise, she was greeted with a bowl of white porridge the moment she sat up. Apparently, she had blocked out all other cling-clang noises in the kitchen while she was thinking.

"Here, have some porridge. You should be hungry by now." Fang offered.

Instead of accepting the bowl that was being offered to her, she eyed it warily with a faint frown on her face, doubts underlying in her skeptical gaze. Why was the brunette treating her so… good? It was a mere couple of days ago that they were trying to tear each others' limbs out and rip each others' throats, now – apparently – Fang had taken care of her during her knocked out period and even cooked for her. And it seemed that the porridge belonged to the brunette's storage of food as well. She could not understand the sudden change of behavior from worst to the better – though only slightly –, which only made things more apprehensive for the pinkette.

Seeing the obvious flashes of suspicions in the pinkette's eyes, Fang rolled her eyes and took a spoonful of porridge into her mouth, chewed for a bit, then swallowed it down, her serious gaze never leaving the pinkette's skeptical one, which now turned into a full baffled gaze at the whole scene exchange. Once she swallowed it, she started, "It's safe to eat, I did not add pepper or pour in a whole bottle of salt in it or whatever poisonous, so you won't risk getting a stomachache, I promise. I'm not that wicked or black hearted or whatever you portray me in your head, I'm not those bad eggs which does something bad while that person's guard is totally down and all." Fang said with a serious and genuine tone, her face a look of sincerity.

Watching the brunette's show of genuineness in both her eyes and voice, Lightning's doubts eased away and her eyes darted away from Fang. Right, perhaps she was thinking a bit too much of the brunette, and a tad too ill-hearted at that too, but she couldn't help it, things happened in the past had shaped her this way. Finally letting her guard down for the first time around Fang, she started out slowly, "I'm not using that spoon…" she said with a croaky voice, throat still dry from the lack of water during her sleep.

Fang smirked slightly, apparently she had gotten through her for the first time. Without any complaints, she moved back into the kitchen, grabbed a new spoon and headed back to the pinkette then handed over the bowl of porridge.

Lightning finally took it from Fang – though a bit reluctant – and started to take a small spoon of porridge, not willing to rush too fast in case she was wrong about the brunette. After tasting it and it did feel safe enough to eat, and it was very smooth at that, she started taking bigger spoons in. Fang on the other hand went back into the kitchen to fetch her breakfast and coffee to her study desk and began eating as well.

Halfway consuming her porridge, Lightning occupied her mind with thoughts of Fang. She still had not figure it out why Fang had suddenly changed for the better, or perhaps the woman felt pity for a sick Cocoonian like her and decided to help due to sympathy. Though it irked Lightning to say the least, but it was the only thing she deemed appropriate for the sudden change coming from Fang, and she was quite grateful for the brunette's help even though she did not like owing the woman favors. Lightning supposed now she had more favors to repay back to the brunette. Or was this actually her plan? Making her owe the woman tons of favors, so that she could make good use of her when Fang needed her to? Damn, if that was the case she felt like puking the porridge back out. Then, the sincerity shown by Fang earlier and the day before yesterday flashed in Lightning's head again. Thinking about it, she did appear to be rather genuine actually, just that she still felt dangerous to actually believe Fang. She was a Pulsian after all, and the past made her set her mind on thinking that all Pulsians were liars, pure cruel liars, and that was how her parents died in the Pulsians' hands, right in front of her eyes. Thinking back to her scarred past, she frowned at it and shook her head to get rid of the disturbing image which was etched clearly into her mind. Maker, she shouldn't have thought of that, it made her feel like throwing up now. Although, in spite of everything, she did make the decision to change her point of view about Pulsians, perhaps she shouldn't be so extreme in her thinking or else it would be hard to even budge her original belief of Pulsians. But Fang, well, she has got to get her view of Pulsians to change a bit more before she can finally focus back on the brunette since Lightning didn't just hate her for being Pulsian, but the attitude on the first day was a dead giveaway for Fang to come approaching her now. Maybe once she had changed a bit, she could be a bit nicer to the brunette as an acquaintance. Etro, too much thinking made her head hurt again, and she had to shake her head a bit to halt all thoughts.

Fang was watching Lightning the entire time, from when the pinkette started eating the porridge till halfway then stopped as she donned a thinking expression, then spaced out, then a frown, then a disgusted frown, back to a thoughtful expression, and finally a shake of her head. Seeing the whole exchange with an arched quizzical eyebrow, she started, "Hey, you alright?" Fang asked.

Lightning finally managed to break her thoughts when Fang spoke, tearing her eyes away from the bowl of porridge, she looked to Fang, "What?" she asked dazedly, not quite hearing what Fang had said.

"I'm asking if you're alright. Are you feeling sick again?" Fang asked with concern.

"I'm fine." Lightning simply uttered.

"Really… I thought I saw all those… weird expressions of yours, never mind, I just thought your fever came back. If your fever did come back, you can drink the water from the kettle over there, it was boiled with herbs used to treat fever. I fed you some of that and your fever went down pretty fast." Fang said as she pointed her thumb at the general direction of where the kettle was placed.

Lightning stared blankly, after the sentence was being interpreted a second time and clearly in her head, she started, "You… fed me?" she asked with a tone of hinted surprise and disbelief.

Fang looked back at her blankly, wondering if something was wrong listening to the tone of the pinkette's, "Yea, I did. Your fever was pretty bad so I asked Vanille for some help, something wrong?"

Okay, so much of _care _coming from the usually antagonistic brunette was definitely weird, and hard to believe as well. "You… Hold on, just let me get this straight, you carried me back to my bed last night and took care of me, and _fed _me medicine?" she asked again.

Fang slowly nodded.

It was too much for Lightning to digest, the changes from Fang were all too sudden for Lightning to bear. Her doubts came back, "Get straight to the point, what do you want from me?"

Fang let a frown of confusion crept to her face, "What do you mean?" she asked.

"Why are you doing _all _these?" Lightning said with a hardened gaze of suspicion as she gestured at the porridge and the towel, everything that Fang did for her.

Fang frowned, apparently the woman was not used to accepting courtesy or help without a reason from her, or just plainly from a Pulsian she thought. Luckily for her, she did have a reason, "You think I'm someone to leave a sick person out in the corridor while she was passed out and not do a thing about it? Sorry to disappoint you but that's not the kind of person I am, I just help when I can if the other party needs help, there's a trait for this, apparently it's called kindness. And I did all these simply because I genuinely wanted to help, if you want to think so badly of me then fine, so be it. I can't control what you think after all." She said with a hint of frustration evident in her voice and looked away with a disappointed look.

Listening to Fang, it made Lightning felt bad for her ill thoughts of the woman and her behavior towards the brunette's kindness, but it couldn't be helped, Lightning was still wary of Pulsians especially Fang and she was not used to the sudden kindness that she was receiving from the other woman. Heck, she was not one who was used to accepting kindness even from back then after all, it was her character to not simply accept anything if she did nothing to deserve it, even if it meant simple kindness. Back in Cocoon, when the war was still raging on, she knew nothing of kindness after her parents died, since kindness was never on her side from that time onwards. To be more accurate, kindness was never on anyone's side during war period, since they all needed to look after themselves, who in their right mind would have the time to consider 'kindness' towards one another. And so, this was what made her who she was today, hardened from deep inside out, it couldn't be blamed that Lightning had been through a lot to be this shielded away from people, well except for her sister. But now, here in the room with Fang, she was aware that perhaps she was thinking and doubted the brunette a tad too much, and she was at fault for accusing her when she was actually – now she could feel it – sincere in her actions. The sincerity from Fang had chased the blinding hatred away a bit now, and so she felt the need to apologize to the woman, "Sorry…" she apologized softly as her eyes softened considerably from the previously piercing gaze and looked away from Fang, feeling disgraceful at herself, and thinking that she was being immature too.

Fang whipped her head back to Lightning with surprise written all over her face when she heard the pinkette apologized to her, now she certainly was not expecting that, she half expected silence coming from the woman and the atmosphere go tensed again. Eyeing the pinkette cautiously and once she was convinced that the pinkette meant it, her lips started to quirk up around the edges, "I forgive ya." She said with a lighthearted tone.

Then Lightning turned her head back towards Fang, though her eyes darted to various directions, trying to avoid eye contact with the brunette since she still felt bad about it, "And I'll pay you back." She stated.

Fang paused and her smile wiped away which was then replaced with a quizzical arched eyebrow, "What?"

"I said I'll pay you back." Lightning said as she held the bowl of porridge up for Fang to see, "Your food."

Fang snickered at the serious woman, "There's no need for that, since I sorta forced you to have it anyway." She said, indicating when Lightning was reluctant to accept her offer just now.

"You didn't force me, I took it out of my own will, so I'll repay you." The pinkette said as she continued to take her porridge.

Sensing the woman's stubbornness in the matter, Fang gave in thinking that if she stubbornly insisted on not needing to pay her back, the pinkette would probably stop eating and another possible clash might occur between them. Now that they could at least be this peaceful, Fang wanted to keep it that way, "Alright, alright, suit yourself."

Later, the two went back to their breakfasts. Lightning watched Fang from the corner of her eye while the brunette was not aware, and something inside her changed when she looked at Fang. Lightning could now managed not to glare daggers at the woman even if she was looking at her, which was quite a change, since whenever she looked at the woman in the past one and a half months it were all glares and she couldn't stand to look at the brunette for more than thirty seconds due to how much she despised her. However, now it had changed a bit and she didn't hate the woman as much as before, it was likely because of the change in Fang's attitude towards her that initiated the change in her view towards the Pulse brunette. Whatever the reason was, Lightning could feel less of the hatred directed at Fang due to the woman's kindness and genuine actions towards her. And in truth, she felt that as if Fang had lessened her hatred a great degree towards her as well, or else she doubted the woman would have been so kind to such an extent towards her. Although, what the reason of change was for Fang, Lightning didn't know, but nonetheless she could go with it if the woman was less aggressive, that meant a more peaceful stay until she leaves for Cocoon again. Yea, she would also prefer to be nothing more than roommates instead of enemies, it will be easier for her and the brunette, plus her eyes hurt a lot from the constant and extra amount of glaring from the past one and a half months. If she changed, maybe she could change to be less intimidating as well.

After awhile of comfortable silence – for the very first time –, Fang started in an attempt to initiate a conversation, "You should rest more in bed today and don't move around so much, your body needs the rest. The more you rest, the faster you recover."

As much as Lightning's opinions and feelings toward the brunette changed, she still didn't like being commanded around, although Fang was actually advising her, but the pinkette misinterpreted it. Lightning was a pretty stubborn individual after all, so she wouldn't take advises easily as well, "Don't need to tell me that, I know." She said with a tone harsher than she actually meant.

Fang rolled her eyes at the pinkette, she should have expected that the woman didn't like taking advices as well since she was so stubborn. With a small sigh, she continued, "Fine, I know you know, just sorta reminding you. If you don't rest more I'm only worried that your fever might come back, there's a limit to how much a body can take." Fang voiced out her concern, hopefully the woman wouldn't see it as a fictitious concern again.

Lightning knew Fang was right and reluctantly nodded instead of countering, she could hear it now, the concern in the brunette's voice. "I get it." She muttered.

Pleased at the non-thorny respond, Fang gave a half smile. Eyeing the empty bowl in Lightning's hands, she asked, "Need a second helping?"

The pinkette nodded slowly, a little shy at the need to have more since her stomach was still nagging at how hungry it was, after all she did not have any food since last night. Fang noted and stood from her chair then walked towards Lightning with the intention to help fill the woman's second helping. When Fang approached, Lightning stared up at the brunette with a bewildered expression, but then it was replaced with a faint troubled frown when she noted the brunette's outstretched hand in an attempt to help her with the porridge. Sighing softly, she started, "I'm not a child… Just tell me where to get it will do."

Fang shook her head, "I'm already standing anyway, just stay in bed, I'll help you." She stretched out her hand a little further.

After awhile, Lightning handed over the bowl – with a bit of reluctance – since she was also feeling a little weak still, so she accepted Fang's help. Fang then headed back into the kitchen, filled the bowl with porridge and then brought it back to Lightning. The pinkette took the porridge from Fang and muttered a thank you, earning Fang a half smile from the sight. _She's actually quite adorable with her manners and all… _The brunette thought to herself as her smile widened while she returned to her study desk and resumed her breakfast.

When both were done with breakfast, Fang once again helped Lightning to fetch the bowl to the sink and washed it despite Lightning objecting and wanting to help, but Fang had successfully took the bowl away and kept the pinkette in bed. While she was in the kitchen, she suddenly remembered something important. Shoot, how could she have forgotten and dragged it till now. Turning around, Fang called out to Lightning, "Hey, you had a call earlier, it was from your sister and she wants you to call her back now that you're awake." She said nervously, feeling guilty at forgetting such an important matter.

Lightning's eyes widened with shock, turning her head to face Fang, she started, "You picked up my phone?" she said with a tone of mixed annoyance and mild anger evident in her voice.

"It was ringing and you were sleeping, so I thought-" Fang tried to explain, but she was cut off by a now fuming pink haired woman.

"That's no excuse to invade my privacy." Lightning spat with an agitated tone and the glare returned, "Even if I'm sleeping it's none of your business." Lightning was angry at the brunette, though the main reason of her anger was not because of her privacy, but it was _Serah's _call. Lightning will never ever miss a call from Serah ever since an incident from back then where she almost lost her sister due to her missing a call, since that traumatic experience she swore to never misses a call from her sister in fear that something bad might have happened again to Serah during her absence. This was why she was so mad now, Serah was her only family left, and she swore to her parents she will protect her, if she had been in some trouble while she was out cold, she didn't know how she could ever face herself or her parents again. Suddenly, a flash of hazy memory invaded her head.

"_We know, we trust you." _

Lightning frowned at the memory, the voice that she heard was painstakingly familiar to someone. Looking back to the brunette who was now donning an expression of helplessness at her anger, Lightning frowned more at the voice which apparently belonged to Fang, but she shook the thought off thinking that it was probably only a dream. Although, for some reason, her anger had lessened somewhat and she started again, "Look, thank you for taking care of me alright, I'll find a way to repay your kindness, just… just don't come messing with me and leave me alone." She said as she grabbed her phone from the study desk and started dialing in Serah's phone number.

Fang frowned and sighed exasperatedly, she wanted to say more but she thought the better of it when she remembered something, talking more to the heated pinkette at the moment will only make things worse than it already was. Although it was also frustrating for Fang to bear, what she did was out of consideration so that the woman could rest more, but somehow whenever she did a good deed it always got backfired by the pinkette. Grabbing her keys and jacket, she decided to head out for a walk instead of staying in the tensed-atmosphere room. After all, Fang did managed to achieve something difficult with Lightning, which was talking peacefully – well, almost peacefully – and without things getting nasty until just now, and since her goal was to befriend the pinkette, she figured it would be best to leave things there instead of escalating it any higher. Originally, she wanted to improve their relationship from earlier where they were at least being at peace with each other but now that Lightning had gotten mad again, it appeared that she'd need to try again. Damn, efforts gone to waste.

XXX

Once Fang was out, Lightning was done dialing in the numbers into her phone and she brought it to her ears as the line connected. After a couple of seconds, the other end picked up, "Lightning! You finally called, I was wondering when you'll be awake, it's already 9 now! I was worried!" Serah went on with an upset tone.

Lightning released a sigh of relief, it seemed that the younger Farron was alright judging by the lecture kind of tone, "I'm fine, Serah. Why did you call me? Anything?" she asked.

Serah huffed, "You know why I am calling! Because _you _didn't _call_!" Serah snapped.

Lightning arched an eyebrow, puzzled at what the girl was saying, then she remembered, "Oh, I'm sorry, Serah, I was busy and since Snow said you were alright and not involved in the accident I didn't-"before Lightning could finish, Serah interjected.

"That's not it! You were sick and you didn't call!" Serah yelled, clearly displeased at her sister for hiding the fact away from her.

Lightning frowned, how did Serah know she was sick? Oh, damn, must be Fang. Mentally growling, she tried to start again but was once again interrupted by Serah, "If Snow hadn't called me and told me that you were sick, I wouldn't have known since you didn't even call and let me know! Until when are you going to tell me, Lightning Farron?" she lectured sternly.

The pinkette stunned when she listened to Serah, then her eyes narrowed dangerously when she realized Snow was the one who blew her cover, she even warned the man not to and she trusted him, Lightning was going to make the oaf pay. On the other hand, now that Lightning had known who the one who blew her cover was, she felt bad again for mistaking Fang once more. She needed to stop jumping into conclusions so fast. But now, she had another problem to handle first, sighing softly, she went on, "Serah… it was just some coughs, it's fine, you don't have to worry so much…"

"Some coughs!? Your roommate told me that you were having such a high fever last night that you fainted! Did you know how worried I was after hearing that? I wanted to call you again but I was afraid that you were still sleeping and you needed the rest, so I refrained myself to, did you know how frustrating I was feeling?" Serah said with the same upset tone as she continued her rant.

Lightning's left eye twitched, so Fang blew her cover as well, she was starting to get upset at the woman again. "I'm all better now so really there's nothing you need to worry about, Serah."

Serah sighed into the phone, "Lightning, I don't care if it was only a mild one, I still want to know if you're unwell or anything, I'm your sister… don't keep me out of anything…" she said with a sad tone.

Lightning sighed and went on apologetically, "I'm sorry, Serah… there's no more next time, promise."

"There better not be, or else I'd call up your roommate to check things on you regularly." Serah warned solemnly.

Lightning groaned with displeasure, "Serah, it'd really help to not remind me of her now."

"Why? And really, Lightning, why didn't you tell me that you'd finally made a friend! She was really nice too, I'm glad you have got a nice friend now, though it was quite unexpected, I half expected that you'd be a lone wolf until like three or four months later, or maybe even until the day you leave." Serah said with a cheery tone.

Lightning only stared blankly listening to Serah talk, friend? Who was Serah talking about? Last time she remembered, she only had one friend and it was way back in the past. "What're you talking about?" She asked with a puzzled tone.

"I'm talking about your roommate, Fang! She's a really nice person, I'm glad you met someone nice." Serah said with a smile.

Lightning gawked at what she heard. Roommate? _Nice_? And when did Fang become her friend? "What? She is not my friend, it just happened that she picked up my phone while I was still sleeping, that's all." She said with an irritated tone at the claim coming from Serah.

"Even so, she was nice when I was talking to her. And don't be mad at her Lightning, I know you, you must be mad at her for picking up your phone without your consent. She was only being considerate trying to let you rest more, so she picked it up, I called at 7 you know, and seems like she woke up even earlier than that since she didn't sounded groggy at all when she answered it. She also made the effort to whisper softly so that she wouldn't wake you." Serah explained.

The pinkette frowned at Serah's lecture, listening to the younger Farron explained, Lightning recalled waking briefly due to some noise but she was too tired to bother, and the noise only continued for a few seconds before it was stopped, probably it was her phone ringing and Fang had picked it up. Thinking on the matter, Lightning supposed she was a bit too harsh towards the brunette, after all Fang was only being considerate for her sake, and not like the brunette knew about the importance of calls from Serah to her. Sigh, Maker, she felt like she was constantly making a fool out of herself in front of Fang for overreacting and mistreating her so badly with her attitude when all Fang did was being kind and considerate. Slumping her shoulders in a defeated manner, she mentally noted down to apologize to the brunette again later. With a sigh, she continued, "Right… I'll apologize then…"

Serah huffed at the pinkette's response, "I knew it, you must've jumped into conclusions just like your namesake and got mad at her huh, you better apologize before things get rough."

"Yes, Serah, I will, now stop acting like you're my mother." Lightning said with a hint of annoyance.

"I'm your sister, I've the right to look after you just like how you look after me and make sure you don't be naughty." Serah said with a faked motherly tone.

Lightning rolled her eyes and a smile came to her lips when she heard her sister faking a motherly tone, "Fine, 'mother', and I'm too good to be naughty alright."

Serah chuckled, glad to hear the smile in her voice, "Lightning, if that roommate of yours isn't your friend, then do you have _any_ friends?" the girl asked.

Lightning remained silent for awhile before finally replying, "…No."

A sigh could be heard from the other side of the line, "I guess I'd expected too highly of you… Well, then go befriend someone, I told you to be nice and make some friends on your first day!" Serah said with a disappointed tone.

"Serah, it's mostly all Pulsians around me, but look, I had-" Lightning tried to explain, but failed when Serah cut her off.

"That's not an excuse, Lightning, you should let it go and try befriending someone, maybe they'll change how you think."

Lightning sighed, "I'm not finished yet, I was trying to say that I had been thinking lately… that maybe you're right and that not all Pulsians are the same, so well…" she trailed off, unused to talking such matters with the younger Farron, usually Lightning just kept things to herself, it was only on some rare occasions that Lightning opened up to Serah entirely, just like now, though she still faced the difficulty in forming the words, she was a woman of few words after all, it was one of the most notable traits in the pinkette.

Serah's excitement could be heard the moment she opened her mouth and the tone of enthusiasm and joy invaded Lightning's earpiece, "So you'd finally let it go?" she asked hopefully.

As much as Lightning didn't want to break the girl's hope, she had to admit that she had not completely let it go, but she wanted to try and start to make a change, "No, Serah, I've not let it all go yet… Just a little. Something happened actually, and it made me changed my mind a little regarding Pulsians, so I decided to try and change my beliefs towards them."

Even though Serah's hope dropped a little, she was still happy to hear that her stubborn sister decided to start seeing things at a different point, "I'm glad to hear that, Lightning. So… what made you changed? Could it be that roommate of yours?"

"No, not her, something else did. To be honest, that roommate and I aren't in much of good terms at all." Lightning commented.

"Why not? Did something happen?" Serah asked, concerned.

Lightning scratched the back of her head gently, she was going to get into trouble again with the younger Farron for spilling this, "Just that our first meeting ended up pretty tensed… and apparently she hates me too, for being a Cocoonian, I wasn't surprised though, so I only ignored her most of the time and glared back at her whenever she shot some 'smart' remarks at me. And then… actually a couple of days back we got into a fight…" the pinkette trailed off.

"And then?" Serah asked with a knowing tone, she knew there was something more to expect than just this coming from her elder sister. Either she got her roommate hospitalized, or she got penalized for hurting someone so bad, Serah knew her sister was a top fighter in Bodhum, so it wouldn't be shocking.

"And we got each other bruise-battered and my bruises have yet to fade completely, she was a top tier in the academy." Lightning confessed and then braced for the inevitable.

That was not what Serah was expecting. With shock widened eyes, she started, "WHAT? _She _got you bruise-battered? You got into such a serious fight and _you _didn't tell me about it!? Maker, Claire Farron you're unbelievable!" Serah yelled at her sister angrily.

Lightning frowned at the use of her given name, "Serah, don't call me that."

Serah huffed, "Since you didn't do as I said and report everything out of usual routines to me then why should I do as you say?"

Lightning sighed tiredly at her fuming sister, she knew she was at fault, so she couldn't counter the younger Farron anything, "Serah… it's getting better."

Serah frowned at that, then released a sigh of her own, "How bad was it?" she asked with worry evident in her voice.

Lightning hesitated in telling the truth, thinking that it would probably get Serah heated up again if she told her how bad it was, so second thought, she kept some amount of details to herself, "Just the kick to my gut was a bit more painful, other than that it was all fine."

Serah fell into silence for awhile before speaking up with a doubtful tone, "Really?"

Lightning nodded to confirm it as if Serah was right in front of her, staring at her with a skeptical look, "Really." She muttered quickly.

Serah's frown deepened, "You know, you should consider improving your skills in lying if you wanted to lie, you suck at it."

This caused the pinkette to scowl, "Urgh, Serah, let it go."

"Fine, fine," Serah said with a small sigh, "Then after that? Did you two make up? When I was talking to her this morning it appears that she was really nice and caring towards you, not like the Cocoonian-hater that you said, she even took care of you."

"No… I'm not sure what got into that woman either, but suddenly she changed for the better and seems like her hatred towards me had lessened a great degree…" Lightning said.

Serah smirked, "Perhaps your _sparks_ got to her?" she teased the older Farron, she knew her sister was oh so fine after all, she didn't know how Fang looked like, but she was sure if it was her sister, people would stop to look twice at her when she passed by. Although, she knew the reason behind it, the whole changes in the 'Cocoonian-hating' Pulsian roommate deemed by Lightning.

Lightning frowned, "There was definitely no way that would've bloody happen." She countered immediately, "Serah, there are limits to what jokes I can take." She said sternly.

The younger Farron made a soundless 'oops' at the other side of the line, "Alright, I get it, I got too far off. So well, since even you said she had changed for the better, why not try _befriending_ her?" she suggested, emphasizing on the word.

The pinkette's frown deepened, she knew Serah would come about this eventually, the younger girl wouldn't let it go and let her be a lone wolf in the foreign land. Sighing, she went on, "I still have my doubts, and my first impression of her was really bad."

Serah rolled her eyes at her sister's response, the older Farron had plenty of excuses but none which would work against her, "She was really, really nice to talk to earlier, if you'd only set your doubts and first impressions aside and not be blinded by it, I'm sure you'll come to know that she's indeed a nice person. I mean like come on, she even took care of you while you're sick! And I think she cooked porridge for you too, right?" she said with a half knowing tone, a bit unsure still.

Lightning's eyes widened with surprise, "How'd you know?" she said, astonished.

Serah giggled at the surprise tone coming from her sister, "Surprised? Don't be, like I said I was talking to her this morning, and she was actually busy in the kitchen. It seems like while we talked she sort of forgot to turn the fire off for the pot of boiling porridge and almost spilled out, I asked what the ruckus was about and she said she was cooking a pot of porridge, I guessed it was for you since you were sick anyway." She explained.

So that was how the younger Farron knew, "For a second there I thought Etro bestowed you powers to see the timeline or something. Maybe you're in the wrong course for being an archaeologist, switch to an investigator instead, you always had a knack for finding clues and solving puzzles." Lightning said with a sisterly tone along with a smile.

"Whoa, if Etro did grant me that, I'd definitely put it to good use. And no way! I study history for a reason, and that won't change." Serah said with a proud tone.

That earned a soft snicker from the pinkette, "I was just kidding, Serah."

The girl chuckled together, "Hey, wait, don't stray from the main topic. So as I was saying, Fang was being so nice to you, maybe she has the intention of getting on good terms with you, why not give her a chance and melt down your icy façade a tiny lil' bit?" her tone resumed to one of gentleness as she returned to the topic. Serah knew better than to be solemn or stern in matters like these, being gentle was the key to get through to Lightning's head and heart easier.

Lightning gave it some thought, if the woman did change to be better, of course it wouldn't hurt to actually get on better terms with her. But being friends was another matter, with Pulsians, Lightning tend to stay only acquaintances with them. Actually, regardless of them being Pulsians or Cocoonians, getting too close to anyone was never a good thing to Lightning anyway ever since a heartbreaking incident from the past. She had someone other than Serah who she was really closed to once, and she cared for that person as much as she did for Serah, she treated that person as a family, but something happened and it steeled her heart up and also broke the trust she had in people. Since then, Lightning had shielded herself away from people, preventing others from getting close. The woman always kept in mind the one theory that she had formed ever since that incident, the more you care, the more pain you get and the more vulnerable you are. So she never let anyone in after that, and Serah was also kept at an arm's length even though she was the closest person she had left. Shaking her head in a show of objection against Serah's request – which she knew it was a request from the younger Farron listening to the gentle tone – she started out slowly, "Serah, I've you, and that's enough. I don't want to care about anyone else that much anymore."

Serah tried her luck again, "But Lightning, like you said earlier that not all are the same, not everyone is the same as _her_."

"I might've said that I'll change my views of Pulsians, but befriending someone is a different matter and it's not only because they're Pulsians that I'm this reluctant. Serah, you've to know that forming a bond needs trust, and befriending someone means forming a bond. I just… I just can't trust anyone that easily anymore." Lightning said with a hint of vulnerability in her voice.

Serah's face donned a pained and poignant look upon hearing her sister's tone, she understood what Lightning felt, and it was painful to bear, but still if Lightning never open up ever again, she'd be caged in by herself, and she'd be alone forever if she couldn't find the ability to trust someone again, and the latter was the last thing that Serah wanted. She wanted her sister to be happy again and to be loved, not living her life like a lone wolf forever. Slowly, Serah tried again, "But, Lightning…"

Lightning stopped her sister before she could go on, "No, Serah, let's end it here. Besides, I wouldn't be staying her for long, I don't see the need to have friends since I'll be leaving here forever for good after I graduate." She said with a slightly lighthearted tone in an attempt to cheer the saddened girl on the other side, knowing the younger Farron, Serah would be all sad whenever she listened to her talk about this matter.

Serah's shoulder slumped and sighed into the phone, "Alright, just let me say one more thing and I'll stop. Lightning, you should let bygones be bygones, don't let that one person ruin everything that you could've enjoy in your life, just because she failed your trust, doesn't mean that everyone else is the same. You can't just categorize everyone in the same category if you don't give them a chance to prove to you that you could trust them, it just isn't fair. You're a person who stands by equality, Lightning, so I know that deep down, you know that it isn't fair to treat people the way that you treat her, you've got to give people a chance to start earning your trust, not totally shutting them out." Serah said with a tone filled with a mixture of gentleness and plead.

Lightning sighed exasperatedly, "Serah-" she wanted to stop the girl, but Serah would not let her.

"Just hear me out, Lightning," Serah stopped her with a stern and somewhat pleading tone, when the woman on the other line stopped, she continued, "I… I really want you to be happy, happy with someone, and willing to smile again like before, I want to see Claire again, the one who would smile unreservedly and lovingly. Please, just promise me one thing, can you do it?" Serah pleaded.

Lightning remained silent for awhile before she asked, "What is it?"

"Just promise me first." Serah pleaded strongly.

The pinkette let out a long sigh and scratched the back of her head, feeling troubled at whether to agree or disagree. After awhile, she finally made her decision and replied, "Alright, I promise." It was only natural, since Serah was her only family left, and Lightning would do anything to keep Serah happy and safe, even if it meant hurting herself sometimes.

Serah's smile returned faintly, "Okay, listen, I know you're afraid of getting hurt again, but sometimes you've got to risk a little to get something in return. I know you promised me for my sake and because you wanted to keep me happy, but I want you to not only do this for my sake, but for yours as well, I really, really hope that you'd open up to someone new again and let them approach you, give them a chance to show you that there are still trustworthy people out there. All I want you to do is try to open up for a bit and try befriending someone new there, if you really find that you can't do it, you can tell me and stop, but I won't have it without you trying first, alright?" Serah said with a caring yet firm tone, she wanted to get it across to the pinkette that she was serious, but at the same time she cares for her as well.

Lightning mentally sighed, she knew it was going to be something like this, but there was no backing away now since she promised. Besides, Serah was an understanding individual, so if she did try and still could not make it, she would understand. However, Lightning was a person who held on strongly to the promises she made as well, especially to her sister, so she will definitely do her best in the matter, only then will her conscience be at peace with herself for telling the younger woman that she had tried her best but failed. Alright, she'd do it, "Fine, I'll try."

"Promise?" Serah tried to double confirm, her tone now of a happier one.

"Promise." Lightning confirmed with a faint smile upon hearing the joyous tone.

"Pinky promise?" Serah teased with a playful smile.

Lightning frowned at that, "Serah, how are we supposed to do that?"

Serah giggled at the woman's over amount of seriousness, "Okay, okay, you promised!"

"Yes, I promise, and I'll keep it." Lightning replied with a small helpless smile. She really was defenseless against her younger sister.

"Alright, since you said it like that, I'll look forward to receiving good news from you. Since it's you, I know you can do it, since you're my sister after all. One suggestion, maybe you could start with that roommate of yours, she appears to be a nice and kind person for taking care of you. And she actually-" Serah tried to tell Lightning of Fang's intentions, but the woman interjected her abruptly.

Lightning frowned as she interrupted the younger Farron, "I'll have my freedom in deciding who I'll let my walls down for, okay?"

"Alright, fine, just saying that she really sounds like a fine person, just don't look at people with that stereotyping glasses of yours and you'll see the goodness in people." Serah added.

The pinkette's frown deepened, "I don't wear those kind of glasses."

"Whatever you say, you're the one who knows best whether you do or not." Serah countered with a teasing tone.

Lightning rolled her eyes at the younger woman, "Enough about me, let's talk about you, why did you let that oaf drive my car?"

Serah's smirk was wiped off in a second, gulping, she answered, "Well… He really needed it for his work, since it was only for a day I thought it'd be alright… but it was an accident after all, it didn't have anything to do with his driving skills. And he is not an oaf, mind you." Serah added the last sentence with a stern tone.

"I could care less about his driving skills when he got my car banged into a streetlight pole. And now you don't have a car, see how inconvenient that is?" Lightning countered back with a stern tone of her own.

Serah huffed, "I'll be fine taking the trains to the university."

"Make sure that oaf goes with you, or else I'm gonna rip him apart for real." Lightning warned solemnly.

Serah's eyes narrowed displeasingly at the threat, "Can you stop being so violent towards Snow? He already promised he will walk me to and fro the university, so don't worry alright."

"That oaf has to deal with this amount of violence to keep him reminded that he has a monster to deal with if he hurts or endangers you." Lightning countered with a strict tone.

This made the younger Farron giggled, "I know you care about me, but rest assured, he's really gentle to me and loves me unconditionally."

Lightning scowled at that, "Can you keep those to yourself?"

"Oh, jealous? If so, you better get a lover so that you won't have to put up with me bragging how lovey-dovey we are." Serah teased with a smirk.

"I'm not jealous and don't make things complicated from asking me to befriend someone to getting a lover, love is only a waste of time for me. Enough talk, help me relay this to Snow by the way, 'I'll be back with revenge, brace yourself', alright? Bye." With that, not even waiting for Serah to shoot back at her, she hung up immediately and threw the phone aside on her bed. Now, she had things to deal with in her troubled mind after making that promise.

XXX

Fang left the room and walked along the corridor towards the stairs, a look of displeasure visible on her face. She was really disappointed at the whole outcome, she was only being considerate and being just that got all her previous efforts going down the drain. Will it kill that woman to miss a call? That call did not seem too much of an emergency at all as well, if it was an emergency needless to say Fang would have woken the sleeping woman up earlier, she will not have wait until now to tell the pinkette. Thinking back, Lightning's sister was way more pleasant than the pinkette, she was much friendlier without the constant underlying threat and distrust in the tone while she talked. It could be because that girl had not met her yet, but if she did meet Lightning's sister she would probably be on better terms with the girl than with the woman.

*Flashback*

Fang was in the kitchen cutting some veggies while a pot of porridge was boiling on the stove, after slicing the veggies into small cubical shapes she set it aside for the omelet that she will be cooking to have for breakfast later. Suddenly, the noise of something vibrating on a hard surface came to Fang's ears and then a soothing music started playing loudly out of the blue, startling the brunette and turning around to see that it was Lightning's phone on the desk – which she had helped took out and set it down on the study desk – and consequently stirring the sleeping pinkette. Out of good intention for the pinkette to rest more since it was still early – 7.30 in the morning – Fang had immediately rushed to the phone and picked it up.

"Hello?" Fang whispered softly, trying her best not to wake the pinkette.

Serah was shocked to hear such a whispery voice and with an exotic accent, clearly it did not belong to her sister, but who in their right mind would pick up Lightning's phone? Oh no, Serah was hoping nothing happened to her sister, cautious but anxiously, she started querying from the voice, "Who is this? Where is Lightning? Did something happen to her? How is she?" a barrage of questions went shooting at the brunette.

Fang tried calming the girl down, "Whoa, whoa, calm down. I'm Fang, her roommate and she's still sleeping but she's recovering. And who might you be?" she asked barely above a whisper.

Serah made an 'oh' at the reply, "I'm her sister, Serah. Wait, you said she's recovering? How bad was it?" she asked with a concerned tone.

The brunette mentally noted down that Lightning had a sister named Serah, "It was pretty bad last night with the fever, she passed out before she could reach the room but no worries, I carried her back and fed her some medicines so her fever's gone now. But she still needs to rest a little bit more, maybe you can call back later when she's awake? I'll tell her you called."

Serah's worries calmed a little listening to Fang explain the situation, but now her curiosity kicked in and she was not letting the chance of knowing Lightning's Pulsian roommate go. It was also a good idea to know if Lightning was doing okay and being with a nice person or not, she might be a tad too motherly in her actions but she could care less about that if it came to Lightning's safety and wellbeing. Slowly but excitedly, she began testing the waters, "Oh, okay, I'm so glad to know that she's alright now. So, you're Fang, right? Don't hang up just yet, let's have a quick chat maybe?"

Fang arched an eyebrow, "Er… Okay?" she replied softly.

"You helped carry my sister back to the room, I heard that correctly, right?" Serah asked.

"Yea, I did." Came Fang's reply.

"She was probably heavy, I'm sorry about that, and thank you as well for taking care of my sister."

Fang shook her head out of reflex whenever she disagreed with something, "No, she was fine. And it's okay, I'm only trying to help if I could. Besides, it wasn't too far, it was only a few more steps before she made it to the room, but apparently she had been pushing herself too hard." She continued speaking barely above her breathe.

_Humble and kind, _Serah noted in her head, "Sorry, but why are you whispering?" The younger Farron knew the answer why, but it was a test for the brunette.

"Your sister here is quite a light sleeper, I'm trying to lower down my volume as much as I can so as to not stir her you see, she isn't sleeping too far away from where I stood." Fang's reply came in perfectly for Serah's expectation.

_Considerate and with a keen eye, _again the girl noted down, "Oh I see, I'm sorry I haven't been to your place before so I didn't know, you're such a considerate and nice person."

Fang arched both her eyebrows listening to the girl, was this really Lightning's sister she was talking to? Because the two appeared to be absolute opposites of each other, this girl that she was talking to was kind enough to compliment her for her actions even though she hadn't met her yet and was gentle in her way of speaking, but the pinkette that she had dealt with showed no such qualities to her and Fang was sure that the woman will be quick to show that distrust and doubt her genuineness in doing so, as if she was trying to plan a scheme to make the woman fall in, though Fang hoped that it will not be the case when the woman woke up. And the biggest contrast was the way of speaking illustrated by the woman, while the girl appeared to be gentle and warm, the woman's tone was of ice and threat. If Serah did not tell Fang that she was Lightning's sister, Fang would never in her mind think that this person that she was talking to was the pinkette's sister. Not letting herself to wander off too much from there, she halted her thoughts and brought her senses back to the girl on the phone, "You're quick to pass down judgment on a person that you'd never met before."

"I trust my sixth sense, it's pretty accurate all the time. And I trust you're a good person, if you aren't you wouldn't have been so kind to take care of my sister." Serah explained with a smile.

"Huh… aren't you afraid that I might hold bad intentions in doing so?" Fang asked nonchalantly.

"I believe you're genuine in your actions, or else you wouldn't have asked this, right?" Serah countered smartly.

Fang remained silent and a smile tugged at her lips, it was nice getting acknowledged for her doings sometimes, "True. Although I wouldn't say for sure if your sister thinks of me in that way."

Serah was not surprised to hear that, she had expected as much from her elder sister, "I'm sorry that my sister had probably treated you unkindly hearing you say things in that manner… She is… well, a person with quite a past you see." she said in an apologetic tone.

"To be frank, I hated your sister, and she is indeed very frustrating to deal with actually, whenever I tried to be of help, she'd just shove me away, and show me that glare of hers. Although, hearing you say that, it confirmed my guesses, and I don't really hate her anymore actually so if you're worried that I might hurt her you can relax." Fang said softly.

Serah giggled, "I think it's safe to warn you beforehand that the violent trait runs in the family, so if you were to hurt my sister I wouldn't let you go. But about that, Lightning is never one to accept help easily, not if she hadn't done something to deserve that, so you can't exactly blame her for being reserved and suspecting you see. No offense, but she is extremely wary of Pulsians… because of the past that she had, so I hope you forgive her behavior in most matter, it was only because she was blinded by that hatred that she treats Pulsians a little bit unkindly to some extent." She explained to the brunette.

Fang could only sigh, knowing that her mission to befriend the pinkette only got harder than it already was, "I guess I'll just have to double my efforts to approach her then."

"Double your efforts to approach her? What do you mean by that?" Serah asked with her ears perked up, she sensed something interesting was going to happen.

"Er… Well like I said I don't hate your sister anymore… so I'm trying to be friends with her, but listening to you I doubt she'd open up easily." Fang stated.

Serah gasped and she wanted to shriek, she really wanted to, but it will probably be too loud and wake her sister even if it was through the phone, so she suppressed herself and gave a mental shriek, finally someone was daring enough to approach Lightning! And be friends with her at that! It was not a _normal _thing at all, and it definitely was a pleasant surprise for Serah to be extremely happy for Lightning's sake, she half expected that the Pulsians there would never try approaching her elder sister – since she was a Cocoonian and also her glare was enough to prevent someone from getting near her – and so Lightning will be needing to make the effort in it – which will be hard to convince her in doing so, Serah though – but now listening to Fang, the chance appeared for Lightning! And Serah was definitely not going to let the chance slip by easily, she will need to talk to Lightning about this matter later. But now, she shall do her part and support Fang by further encouraging her in being friends with Lightning – even though she knew it was practically sending the brunette into a cave filled with lions, but since she suggested it herself Serah didn't felt the need to be guilty –, it was not every day that someone was brave enough to approach Lightning, but Fang was brave enough to still tread into dangerous waters when she must have already tasted her sister's 'monstery side' when Fang had said she hated the pinkette, so Serah was sure that this person was of genuine intention in befriending her sister – Serah's logic – and she will help her with whatever she could to have her as a friend for Lightning, "FANG! DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED IF YOU WERE BEING PUSHED AWAY!" Serah encouraged her with high spirits.

Fang was a little startled at the sudden hike of spirits from the younger Farron, "Er… O-kay…?"

Serah noticed the slightly startled tone and mellowed down, controlling her excitement, "I'm so sorry I startled you, it's just that I'm really excited and happy for Lightning." She managed through fits of giggles.

Fang arched an eyebrow, not quite understanding what the girl meant, "I don't think I get what you meant in that."

"You see, just like you said, she isn't the kind of person who would open up easily, her level is like challenging a game's super-duper-ultra-hair-pulling-difficulty level, so there was not many people who were willing to approach her mainly because they were scared, and also because they weren't brave enough to muster the courage in approaching her. But you're different, you're brave I can tell! I bet you must've tasted my sister's monster-like side, right?"

Fang stared on blankly when she heard the 'difficulty level' mentioned by the younger girl, she was starting to reconsider if she should go for it, but second thought she still needed to, or else she will be facing the wrath of Vanille, "Well, I have… Actually, are you trying to encourage me or discourage me?" Fang said uncertainly.

Serah was quick to reply, "No, no, no, I'm trying to tell you a few things about my sister beforehand so you might break her wall a little more easily."

Fang frowned this time, "Her 'wall'…?" she asked, now she was thinking that the Farron family was weird with so many… terms.

"Erm, something like an invisible barrier that she had formed around herself which shields her away from people, closing herself off, get it?" Serah explained.

The brunette nodded slowly, "Yea, I got it…" she replied.

"Okay, good, so let me tell you a few things about Light-" before she could finish, Fang interrupted with a suppressed yelp.

"H-Hold on, I'll be right back!" Fang said as she hurried to the stove and turned the fire off. Good thing she turned her head out of coincidence, or else the porridge might have spilled out more than only a little. Once that was done, she resumed her conversation with the younger Farron, "Yea, so you were saying?"

"Erm sorry to be a little nosy but what happened?" Serah queried.

"Oh, I was just boiling some porridge and I sorta forgot about the fire… but it's cool, I saved the day." Fang replied with a faked heroic tone.

Serah chuckled at the smooth hinted humor, "Porridge huh, I thought Pulsians…" she said with hesitation, too late to take it back now.

The brunette snickered at the hesitating girl, "Eat beasts in the morning? You Cocoonians gotta stop picturing us as cannibals. Although, the porridge isn't for me too." Fang said.

Serah managed a sheepish laugh, "Right, now I know, sorry." She apologized.

"It's alright. And you were saying?"

"Oh, right, okay as I was saying, Lightning may appear tough and all, but deep down she's a real softie, so as long as you be yourself and be a bit gentler I'm sure she'll open up." Serah said.

_Being myself is the problem, I'm only afraid being myself ticks the woman off more_, Fang thought to herself, but then even Vanille had told her to just be herself, was there something in that that will actually be the key to approach someone as stoic as the pinkette? "Why do you say so though?" Fang asked in an attempt to clear her head filled with the mentioned question.

"Lightning isn't one to let someone who isn't genuine and honest to approach her, the thing is, trying to put up an act in front of her is definitely a big no-no and she has such keen eyes to see through the fictitious display in people, so never ever put up an act. If you just be yourself, I'm sure your genuine kindness would get to her eventually and she'd warm up to you then." Serah said with a gentle tone.

"How can you be so sure that I'm this gentle and kind when you haven't even met me? Besides, I've to say that being _me _is the tricky part, I'm more than just wild and rough y'know." Fang stated.

Serah hummed cheerfully, "Sixth sense, and I believe even if you're wild and rough, you've your gentle side, just like how you helped took care of my sister. What's more is that it's better to be your wild and natural self than to be acting all nice and smiley in front of my sister, it will only make her suspicions grow." Serah explained.

Fang pretty much had nothing more to counter listening to this.

"But most of all," Serah drew Fang's attention back to her, "Don't give up easily, her display is usually the opposite of what she feels, though sometimes it really is what she feels and thinks about, that's the only tricky part you've to look out for. She's quite a loner, so I really hope she'd get a friend down there to watch her back sometimes. Also, she has some trust issue but if you could earn her trust, she'll be a lifelong friend that you'd treasure, I'm sure about this." The girl finished with an encouraging and positive tone.

The brunette mentally noted down all the points, guess Lightning really was not as simple as just being a pure Pulsian-hating Cocoonian like she thought before, although regardless of knowing all the apparent hardships that she will probably be facing in her path to befriend the woman, Fang was all the more determined and suddenly her curiosity to know more about the woman spiked, she wanted to know the pinkette more now, and she will succeed. After all, people call her the Great Oerba Yun Fang and it was not for nothing, Fang could get all of her jobs done for the clients if any were assigned to her, she was a capable warrior on her own, although this mission was not all about killing but certainly it was not totally impossible. With a smirk tugging at her lips, she finally replied, "Serah, right? I'll be sure to succeed, thanks for your tips there."

Serah's smile widened with joy, "I look forward to it, a pleasure to meet you, Fang."

"A pleasure to meet you too lil' Sunshine, I guess I gotta hang up now, I'll tell your sister to call you back for sure yea? No worries." Fang said as she headed back into the kitchen area.

"Alright, it was nice talking to you, I hope we could talk again in the future! Bye!" And with that, both of them hung up and Fang went back to her business in the kitchen.

*Flashback ends*

Recalling back the conversation, yep, the – apparently – younger Farron, which Fang thought judging by the slightly sharper voice, was definitely a better and perhaps easier version to deal with than the pinkette. However, she did gained some valuable information about the pink haired woman, and knowing that only prompted her to be more determined in the case and get to know more about Lightning too, Fang had to admit, something about that woman did attracted her and sometimes it was actually hard to pull her eyes away from the pinkette, as if there was an unexplainable captivating aura around her that kept her eyes locked on the woman. Her mind was set, she will succeed in this mission which she had labeled MI: BL – Mission Impossible: Befriending Lightning. Fang came up with this name partly because it was the only movie from Cocoon cool and striking enough for her to enjoy – although the brunette wouldn't admit to Vanille in the past when the younger Pulsian had introduced this movie to her – and so she matched the name with this mission of hers and hey, Lightning was a Cocoonian, naming a mission after a Cocoon movie made perfect sense.

XXX

After a day of rest, Lightning had gotten much better and with the help of Fang's potion – which she had originally been reluctant to accept but finally gave in after so much of Fang's pestering – her old bruises had faded away left for the newly formed bruise, which was also half faded by now, on the early morning of Monday.

Lightning had not been able to talk to Fang and apologize for her previous behavior yet ever since Fang returned in the late evening with loads of grocery, apparently the woman had been to shopping to replenish the food in her kitchen, Lightning had tried to offer her help as a means to return her previous favors owing to Fang but the brunette stopped her from doing so and busied herself with it, so there was no room for talking. Later when Fang was finished, Lightning had tried again to initiate a talk – she really didn't want to delay any further before she changes her mind – but again Fang took the chance for her to apologize away by pestering her to use the potion which the brunette offered. It was only after a long while of persistence from the brunette that Lightning had finally gave in, and reluctantly at that. And after that, it was already late into the night and Fang had disappeared into the bathroom and then went straight into bed since she was also rather tired for staying up late yesterday to take care of the pinkette and then waking up way early the next day. There goes the talk, Lightning thought in her head.

Since the pinkette had plenty of rest yesterday, she had woken up much earlier today, although even on weekdays she would always wake up a bit earlier for class – and also with the intention to avoid Fang –, but today it was much earlier. Looking at herself in the mirror now on an early Monday morning, she renewed her resolve in apologizing towards Fang. After taking a shower to clean herself up, she dressed up in her uniform and stepped out of the bathroom into the room. Staring at the sleeping form of the brunette and a glance to the clock, guess she could only be able to apologize later. Seeing as there was nothing to do in the room anyway, Lightning had grabbed her bag and jacket along with her guitar then with the plan of heading to the CT ground where she will be having her class later, it was a good thing Lightning had found a nice spot on the roof of the CT main building which she could distance herself from people for a bit, there she could play her guitar before tonight and she definitely didn't like giving anyone too much of a disappointment, especially to people who had so much faith in her, namely Lebreau.

What song should she sing, she wondered.

XXX

Fang woke up about ten minutes later after Lightning left, when she yawned and sat up, she looked to Lightning's bed and found the bed empty. Glancing to her clock, it read 7.05 and she was surprised to even find herself awake at this time and even shocking to find the pinkette already gone, she knew the pinkette leaves early for classes, not that she was paying attention to her before, but it was hard to ignore with all the soft rustles when the woman got up, and she usually left at around 7.30, so today was extra early. Scratching her head in a dazed state, she got up and got readied for the class later. Hm, maybe she could invite the pinkette for lunch later, if that was anywhere possible.

After cleaning up, she left the room and headed for the CT ground. This was the first time ever that Fang had left for CT ground this early since freshman year, and that was not even as early as today when she had left the room at 7.20. Along her way to her destination, she recalled again the conversation with Serah yesterday and then she thought of Lightning, wondering where the pinkette could have gone to at such an early hour of the day. _A loner huh… Then perhaps there's a place that she could go. And be alone at that. _Fang thought to herself, and with a place in mind, she decided to try her luck in finding the pink haired woman.

Fang made her way through the shortcut and reached the CT ground within five minutes, after that she walked towards the main building and headed straight up to the top, which was the roof. The roof was not a hot spot for the students in this course, they usually tend to spend their time either in the cafeteria or the lounge for students in gangs or groups, and for the quieter ones they usually hang around in the library brushing up their combat and strategy skills. However, as quiet as the library was, she doubted Lightning would be there since there was quite an adequate amount of students in the library as well and the woman was not a people-person, which was obvious. Besides, since it was still this early she doubted there will be anyone up on the roof except for the pinkette, something just told her so. Climbing up the flight of stairs to the top, she finally reached the roof's entrance door and then she moved to swing it open gently, afraid to startle anyone at the other side of the door if there was any. Peeking through the slit of the opened door, she couldn't find anyone there, not even the pinkette that she was looking for. Shrugging, she intended to leave but then the sound of guitar strumming came to her ears and she stopped as she listened to someone play. The tune was gentle and soft, and if Fang was anywhere right about it since she was not an expert with music, she felt a hint of sadness underlying in the music that was being played, and listening to it she felt a sharp tug at her own heart.

Wanting to know who was playing the guitar, she opened the door with the intention to head out onto the roof but suddenly the apparently rusty door gave a loud creak at the lack of usage and it stopped the playing. Without the intention to give up, Fang stepped out to search for the person but as she looked around her it was empty. Then, a familiar voice sounded in her ears with a stern tone coming from behind and somewhere above.

"Who's there?"

Turning around with surprise at the familiar voice, Fang looked up but she could not find anyone there, probably because the person who owned the voice was sitting a bit further from the edge of the upright jutting construction which covered the stairway which led up here, but Fang was sure it belonged to no one other than Lightning. Taking several steps backwards, she looked up and finally saw a pink head peeking over the edge with a readied scowl specially for the intruder.

"Lightning?" Fang called out. Right, now she felt a tad weird at calling the pinkette's name since all she ever used to call out to the woman was either 'oy' or 'hey', this was probably the first time ever that she had called out to the pinkette with her name.

Lightning involuntarily shuddered slightly at the accented voice for calling out her name, there was something about that exotic voice of the brunette which she couldn't explain, but hearing the voice actually calling out her name for the first time made her feel weird, it was not that she liked it – probably –, and she didn't dislike it either, but she did not understand that involuntary shudder of her body. "What're you doing here?" She asked back monotonously.

Fang thought about giving a direct answer, but she doubted that the pinkette would appreciate the thought of looking for her, the woman will probably think about how she was probably planning schemes again, "I was just taking a stroll up here but then I heard someone playing the guitar, was it you?" she asked casually.

Lightning remained silent for a bit before she started, "Yes. Hey, listen, I wanted to tell you something."

Fang arched a curious eyebrow, Lightning wanted to tell her something? It was surprising to see the pinkette taking the initiative in talking, but she wondered if it was anything good at all though since it was so out of the blue. Bracing herself, she nodded, "Sure, what is it?"

Lightning opened her mouth to talk but then closed it, with this distance she doubted she could talk properly with the brunette, after all apologizing should be done formally to at least show her sincerity. "Give me a minute, I'll be down." She said as she disappeared from Fang's sight.

Fang waited for a couple of seconds before Lightning reappeared from the side of her sight, the pinkette should have just said a couple of seconds would do. Turning to the approaching pinkette, she started, "So, what is it?"

Lightning let a small sigh escaped before she started with a solemn look on her face, "Look, I wanted to apologize for my previous behavior for being so hostile against you when you were being nice, I'm sorry for that. And I also thank you for taking care of me by nursing me back to health, but I-" when Lightning was halfway through, Fang interjected.

Listening to Lightning's speech, Fang was a little happy to hear the change in attitude and could not wait for the other to finish, "Hey, it's fine, I get it, you don't have to be that serious, do you? And you're welcome. How about lunch later?" Fang asked right away when she had the chance, not letting it slip away when the pinkette had seemingly opened up a little.

Lightning's solemn expression turned into a faint frown, sensing that the other woman seemed to have misunderstood her for a change of heart to be more than mere acquaintances, she put up a hand to halt Fang and accompanied by a shake of head, "I haven't finished, and no I'll have lunch alone just fine. As I was saying, thank you for your help, but I'll repay your favors as soon as possible and don't mingle with me, trust me, you wouldn't want to. Here on, I'll mind my own business and you'll mind your own, the line will be there." With that, Lightning moved to walk past Fang but the brunette caught the pinkette by her arm in one swift move, and then pulled her back gently.

With a frown of her own, Fang went on, "Must you be like that? I'm already doing my best to be nice, can't you do the same?" she said while her hand still holding onto the pinkette's arm.

Lightning's frown deepened and pulled away, "Like I said, I'll repay your kindness. I'll be sure to return all 3 of your favors." She said with a hint of irritation laced in her voice, unhappy at the physical contact.

Fang sighed in frustration, this was not going good, "Why must you be so hung up on returning the favors? I didn't say anything about the need to, you could just be kinder and we could get on better terms. Like friends, can't we?" she voiced her thoughts out loud.

"I don't see the need in becoming friends, acquaintances will do just fine. You might not mention the need to, but I'm not the kind to take advantage of someone's kindness. Besides, you set the rules yourself, you mind your own business and I'll mind my own, and a new rule, don't touch me." Lightning said with a stern tone along with a glare to emphasize the last rule. There was a reason for Lightning to object Fang's intention in being friends with her, she was only trying to protect the brunette away from her as well.

Fang huffed and rolled her eyes, frustration now evidently written all over her face, "Rules are meant to be broken, and those rules were set in the past when I hated you, now I'm throwing the rules away." She stated.

Lightning sighed in exasperation, "Look, I don't know and I clearly don't care why you don't hate me anymore, although it's good but I clearly don't see the need in being friends when I'll eventually leave, so just leave me alone. One more thing, you'll be a soldier as well one day, if you don't follow the rules then you're only going to have a hard time, that is all." Once she was finished, she quickly turned on her heels and left swiftly, unwilling to continue any further.

"Hey, wait- Damn!" Fang said with an aggravated tone as she watched the pinkette go, "Why the hell must she be so bloody stubborn! What's wrong with finally being friends after having to glare at each other for so bloody long!?" she scolded, clearly annoyed at Lightning's response. After the whole conversation, Fang could only sigh in defeat as her previous determination shaken at the whole confrontation given by Lightning.

XXX

Early evening, at NORA's bar.

Fang arrived earlier at the bar today, so she had opted to take a short rest in the staffroom before the nightshift started. Shoulders slumped slightly in defeat and with a gloomy face, she stepped into the staffroom with Lebreau sitting by the table in her usual posture – legs rested on the table – and dropped into one of the chairs then rested her chin on her forearms which was positioned on top of the table.

Noticing the gloomy look on the usually smiling and charming brunette, Lebreau popped the question, "Hey, why the long face? Vanille?"

Fang shook her head.

Lebreau thought for awhile before making another guess, "Lecturer? More assignments?"

Fang shook her head again.

"It's got nothing to do about the job here right…?" Lebreau asked cautiously, she really did not want to hear anything about her quitting though, she needed the capable woman.

Again, –thankfully – Fang had once again shaken her head.

Lebreau nodded slowly _and _gratefully, though she didn't show it much since the brunette was obviously disturbed. "So… what is it? You wanna talk about it?" she asked.

Fang finally held her head up, she parted her mouth slightly with the intention to speak her mind out but then closed it, deciding not to as she dropped back down with low spirits.

Lebreau mentally chuckled at the adorable sight, "C'mon, you know you could trust me. Out with it, tell Aunt Lebreau all about it." She said with a gentle tone.

Lebreau finally saw the edge of the brunette's lips twitched in the slightest way, the woman sure loved the jokes related to her age, especially the ones which made her sound older. "So, what is it?" Lebreau urged again.

Fang finally let up and sat up straight in her chair, "It's about…"

This time, something told Lebreau that her guess should be right, "Lightning?"

Fang's eyes widened with surprise and darted to Lebreau, "How'd you know?"

"Wild guess. So hurry up and out with it, we don't have all day y'know." Lebreau said as she moved into a more appropriate sitting position.

"Fine… I just wanted to be friends with that woman, get on good terms and all, but she just urgh, this pissed me off. She was so reluctant! And all she said about is repaying the favors she owed me bla bla bla, hell I didn't even say anything about the need to and she was just so obsessed with it. If she really wanted to return the favor might as well be nicer and we could be friends, end of story!" Fang complained with heavy frustration evident in her voice.

Lebreau nodded thoughtfully, "Well, hey, I'm pretty sure you could see that she's a pretty distant and closed up woman, right? How long have you been trying to get through anyway?"

"Since two days back…" Fang replied slowly.

"Ha, and you expect someone like _her _to open up to you and let you in _that _easily? Fang, I think you got to try harder. And listen, don't take advantage of the favors that she owes you and force her to become friends with you because that will only make her hate and distant herself away from you even more." Lebreau explained.

Fang slumped in her chair, "I get it, of course I wouldn't do that, like I said I don't need her returning the favors but she just kept insisting on it and I didn't want to argue so I let it slip, but the problem here is that she didn't want anything to do with me, I'm already having headache trying to figure out how to approach her in the right way you see, and then this morning she came telling me things like 'don't cross the line' and all. 'Breau, you know I suck at things like this, the best method I use is flash a smile and usually people give in but she isn't that kind of people. I don't know how to… approach her." She said as she let out a long sigh.

"So you do admit now you flirt a lot, eh?" Lebreau teased with a smirk.

Fang rolled her eyes, "That's not the point here right now." she countered.

"Alrighty, alrighty, just tryin' to get a smile on your face. Listen up, Fang, she's not like most people, you can't go all out too friendly and just be like 'hey let's be friends' or 'hey let's hang out', you two obviously had problems in the past since I can see that she really doesn't talk or glance at you at all-" Lebreau was talking halfway until Fang interjected.

"She hates me, yes, I know." Fang muttered.

"That's why you can't rush things, if you rush you'll only get the negative results with her y'see. Keep this in mind, let things flow on its own and take it slow. Approach bit by bit each day and then you'd wear off her layer of ice." Lebreau advised.

Fang sighed a little, "I guess I'll do just that then… But it's proving a little hard for my spirits to hold for undergoing so many times of rejections though, this is the first woman ever to have given me more than 3 rejections." Fang said with a frown.

Lebreau chuckled, "Proves that she's different, yes? Besides, don't give up, surely if you succeed it will be a sweet success."

"I'd just only heard something like that from yesterday… Oh well, I gotta fire up my determination about the matter I guess, or else it'd be Vanille's Wrath coming my way." Fang said with a troubled expression.

The older woman laughed, "I half expected Vanille to give you the push in this, guess I was right. And hey, don't keep that long face on alright? I expect a kiss with that usual charming smile of yours." She said with a wink.

Fang shot straight up, "Oh, crap, I almost forgot about that."

"The bet's still on and don't you dare run away, charmer." Lebreau smirked and winked playfully.

Fang just wanted to run away.

XXX

Later that night, it was time for the entertainment period to begin and Lebreau had excused Lightning from the bartending position to get herself ready at the backstage, allowing some time for the pinkette to adjust herself to the atmosphere.

When Lightning had gone over to the backstage, Lebreau waved Fang over to the bar, which the brunette complied. Once Fang was at the bar, Lebreau smirked, "I think I'd like to keep you close just in case you lose the bet and wanted to run away. Ready?"

Fang made a face at the woman, "You wouldn't know until the end. I might still stand a chance to win it." She countered.

Lebreau shrugged casually, unfazed by Fang's useless counter. She knew she was going to win without a doubt. Why? It was because she had accidentally overheard the pinkette singing softly in the staffroom when she had first arrived and was not aware of her presence at the door to the bar. The anticipated surprise for the later show was slightly gone now that she had heard Lightning sang a little, but the secure feeling of winning the bet could not make her anymore happier. And she was not going to tell Fang a hint about it, the brunette will get to hang her mouth wide open later at the pinkette's performance and she will be right there to witness the silly scene, perfect, "As always, we'll see." She said confidently, and Fang was obviously shaken by the confident display.

Later, when it was almost time, Lebreau had gotten one of her staff to get the stage ready for Lightning's performance, nothing too fancy, only a simple bar stool and a standing microphone in the middle of the stage. Being the owner, Lebreau had went up to the stage to announce the first ever entertainment period held in NORA. The woman clapped her hands loudly near the microphone and a couple of seconds later all the patrons in the bar had mellowed down to silence as all attention went to the dark haired owner. Once all eyes were on her, Lebreau went on, "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to bar NORA and I hope y'all enjoying yourselves, and tonight I've an announcement to make, that is NORA will be having entertainment periods starting from today onwards at this time, we've a singer on stage today and hopefully you'd all enjoy her performance. One friendly reminder, don't cause trouble or else my trusted bouncer shall see you to the door. That is all, please enjoy and welcome Lightning." She finished off with a flash of grin and all the patrons gave a round of applause and cheers.

Once that was done, Lebreau went down to the backstage and approached Lightning, who was currently very stoic and stiff due to the anxiety of performing on stage – especially in front of Pulsians – and was looking like she wanted to run away, she really didn't like being in public in general and in front of so many people. Sensing the stiffness in the woman, Lebreau patted Lightning's shoulder gently to calm the woman, "Hey, relax, you can do it. Just play like you always do and don't pressure yourself, treat it as though no one is watching you or you could just close your eyes as you play, alright?" she said with a calming tone.

Lightning closed her eyes and frowned as she released a small sigh to calm herself, when she opened her eyes a determined look was plastered on her face. She was Lightning Farron after all, something like this will never beat her to it, she had gone through rougher events. Tightening her hold on the guitar, she turned to Lebreau with a curt nod, "I won't disappoint you." She replied firmly. Just when she was about to head on stage, Lebreau caught her again by the shoulder and gave her a reassuring squeeze.

"Don't worry about trouble, Fang will settle it if there is any coming your way. Just do your thing."

Nodding lightly, Lightning headed onto the stage. Walking out, she could already hear some gasps and whisperings about her being a Cocoonian. A glance towards the patrons' area and she can already see a few hateful faces directed at her. Nonetheless, she kept walking and ignored it, she promised Lebreau she would not disappoint her and she will keep her promise. Sitting down onto the stool and adjusting the microphone's height, she settled down and held her guitar up onto her lap.

Fang watched as Lightning started strumming along her guitar and a soothing tone came to her ears. Lebreau had made her way back to the bar and stood next to Fang with the bar separating them, show time. After awhile of playing, Lightning parted her mouth and started singing the song despite the noise the patrons were already making in an attempt to block her out.

And the first word out of Lightning's mouth with that godlessly good, smooth as silk voice of hers already made Fang's eyes went wide with surprise.

_You shout it out _

_But I can't hear a word you say_

_I'm talking loud not saying much_

_I'm criticized but all your bullets ricochet_

_You shoot me down, but I get up_

_I'm bulletproof, nothing to lose_

_Fire away, fire away_

_Ricochet, you take your aim_

_Fire away, fire away_

_You shoot me down, but I won't fall_

_I'm Titanium_

_You shoot me down, but I won't fall_

_I'm Titanium_

The patrons who were talking away without giving a damn to the pinkette had all stopped their running mouths as their eyes drawn to the singing woman, many with looks of surprise plastered on their faces and some were already bobbing their heads along with the rhythm with an approving smile.

Fang's eyes were filled with wonder at the pinkette's voice, and her mouth had already parted and a look of pure wonder and amazed donned her face without her realizing. And Lebreau was enjoying both the view and the singing as Lightning went on smoothly.

_Cut me down_

_But it's you who'll have further to fall_

_Ghost town and haunted love_

_Raise your voice, sticks and stones may break my bones_

_I'm talking loud not saying much_

_I'm bulletproof, nothing to lose_

_Fire away, fire away_

_Ricochet, you take your aim_

_Fire away, fire away_

_You shoot me down, but I won't fall_

_I'm Titanium_

_You shoot me down, but I won't fall_

_I'm Titanium_

_I'm Titanium_

_I'm Titanium_

Fang's eyes were unblinking as she watched Lightning sang with her eyes closed and displaying a serene look, the lyrics of the song sung by the pinkette went echoing at the back of her head. And listening to this amazing voice, something in Fang just clicked.

_Stone-hard, machine gun_

_Firing at the ones who run_

_Stone-hard as bulletproof glass_

_You shoot me down, but I won't fall_

_I'm Titanium_

_You shoot me down, but I won't fall_

_I'm Titanium_

_You shoot me down, but I won't fall_

_I'm Titanium_

_You shoot me down, but I won't fall_

_I'm Titanium_

_I'm Titanium_

Lightning stopped playing right when she was done singing, giving the song a perfect closure after a powerful burst. When she was finished, she finally opened her eyes again and lifted her head. To her surprise, all eyes were on her and the approving smiles along with surprised expressions were on most of the patrons' faces. She did not even realize the fact that the noises the patrons were making when she first started had already died down to silence as she was so much into singing. After awhile of staring coming from the patrons and which Lightning merely stared back with an expressionless face – since she was not sure what to do next –, the sound of hands clapping strongly slowly sounded in her ears coming from the bar which when she looked to it, it belonged to Fang. When that one clap sounded, another followed immediately along with many others and soon it became a round of thunderous applause for her performance which was breathtaking, some were even shouting for a second take. Unsure of how to respond to such an unexpected cheering coming from the Pulsians, Lightning merely got up and nodded curtly as a thank you before disappearing from the sight of the crowd into the backstage.

Fang's silly and amazed grin was still hanging on her face, she could not believe that what she just heard was actually Lightning's singing, that was just outright incredible. And the decision was made with a renewed determination, she was definitely going to make this mysterious woman open up and be friends with her, there were so much of intriguing things about the woman that she did not know and she was without doubt attracted to the idea of knowing the pinkette more. No matter what Lightning will shoot her in the future with her attempts of making friends with the woman, Fang will not back down like today.

Suddenly, a tap on the brunette's shoulder broke her thoughts. Turning around, Fang was greeted by a smirking Lebreau. "So, what do you think?" Lebreau asked enthusiastically.

Fang flashed an approving grin, "Awesome." Was all she said as the respond to the question.

Lebreau gave a proud smile, "Of course, I told you I've got the right person for the job. Now, pay up your debt, Fang." She said with a teasing voice as she showed her cheek to the brunette.

Fang mentally groaned and frowned, a bet was a bet, and she lost it, so she had to pay the price, "You greedy woman…" she muttered softly as she went in and placed a brief kiss on the woman's cheek.

Lebreau's smile broadened, "Thank you, your lips are wonderfully soft. And now that the bet's over, I wanted to tell you that I already knew I would win." She said poking her tongue out teasingly.

Fang made a face, "Yea, yea. Well, at least I'm not too upset losing." She said as a smile came to her face.

"Oh? You aren't? That's surprising, since you're always so up for a challenge just to win it." Lebreau commented.

"I've got my determination renewed, and you're right," Fang said as she looked to Lightning who appeared back into the bar and glanced over to her before turning her gaze away, _how intriguing, _she thought smiling confidently, then she went on, "I'm always up for a challenge, and this is a tough one, but I'll surely win it too." Fang finished with her trademark grin.

Lebreau followed the brunette's gaze and her sight landed on Lightning, smirking knowingly, she added, "I'm cheering for you, tiger. Remember, let things flow and don't push too hard."

Fang returned her gaze back to Lebreau with the same trademark grin, "I'm a natural when it actually comes down to it, just wait and see."

* * *

**I hope it wasn't too disappointing! Do R&R people, and tell me what you think. Thanks and cheers! Next chapter will take some time since I'll be busy, so I'm sorry. **


	7. Chapter 5

Put Your Trust In Me

Chapter 5 – Friends

Fang and Lightning returned to their shared room after their work was done for the night. During the nightshift, thankfully no one had actually tried to cause any trouble after the pinkette had finished performing, although there should not be any since most of them were wearing approving smiles, some were even trying to approach Lightning and have a small chat but which the pinkette ignored. Fang was not able to get any chats with Lightning after she returned to the bar since 1: Lightning was unwilling to talk so she had avoided the brunette for most part whenever she tried to get near her and 2: Lebreau had ushered her to get back to her post claiming that she shouldn't push too hard since the pinkette was obviously avoiding her, so Fang complied reluctantly, okay, being a natural takes the right timing too and she will certainly get the chance later when they returned to the dormitory.

So now that they were finally back in the room, Lightning had nowhere to run to – not like she could spend the whole night in the bathroom – and Fang got the perfect opportunity to talk with the woman, well probably. Although, the moment Lightning had gotten into the room, she had immediately grabbed her stuffs and headed straight into the bathroom, knowing that the brunette will definitely try to approach her again just like earlier during work. Fang was not too bothered however, she could always wait for the pinkette to come out later, no rush, she told herself.

Lightning headed straight into the bathroom without a glance or whatsoever and closed the door with a long sigh. Something tells her that Fang was not going to back off even after what she had told the brunette this morning. Right, maybe she still didn't trust Fang enough and was still a little put-off from the first impression, but the main reason for not wanting to be friends with the brunette was because friendship, to Lightning, was considered a thoroughly complicated and troublesome matter for someone like her. Lightning knew herself, her distrusting attitude even after becoming friends might not budge and will probably only remain the same, and not like becoming friends meant she would let her walls down and warm up to them. Because of this, she was sure that if she remained this way even when she was friends with someone, it will only hurt the other party's feelings – Lightning was a considerate and rather empathetic individual, just that she couldn't or didn't know how to actually show it – due to her being so distrustful towards the other party, the few incidents with Fang from yesterday and a couple of days back were already enough proof that it could hurt someone's feelings, and they were not even friends yet. Imagine the hurt inflicted if they were actually friends and she was still so distrustful. That was why Lightning was reluctant to be friends with Fang, mainly because she did not want to hurt the other woman, and also she did not want to have any awkward situations or arguments when they became friends and that trust became an issue. Imagine you're friends with someone, but you don't trust them, and this will only tend to make things awkward for both parties. So, Lightning was not willing to let Fang befriend her, since they were also roommates, which meant if they were friends and things went wrong it would be awkward for them and they had nowhere to run or hide, and Lightning was definitely a Grade F in dealing with relationships. Maker, she needed a way to keep Fang away from her.

Fang was sitting by her study desk doing her assignments at the moment, and then she encountered a difficult problem which caused her to stop there and think of the solution for it, but then her mind – had the wonderful tendency in drifting off – wandered elsewhere back to Lightning's earlier performance. Recalling back the earlier performance, she reminisced the pinkette's wonderful singing and a smile crept to her face. The woman was really full of wonder and surprises, first the Pulsian boy savior, then now she could sing and awesomely great at that. Fang was definitely not going to give up in becoming friends with the pinkette, she will thrive ever harder, she was Oerba Yun Fang after all, there was no way she will be stepping away from the challenge when it was right in front of her. Fang promised herself that she will break the pinkette's wall.

Half an hour passed by and Lightning has yet to step out of the bathroom even though she was already done showering fifteen minutes ago, now the pinkette was merely standing in front of the mirror and staring directly at her own reflection as she spaced out, thinking how she could avoid the brunette, but to no avail as another fifteen minutes went by. Sighing in frustration, she dropped her head low in defeat, she can't just stay here all night now, could she? This was being ridiculous. She had been through so many times of danger and almost death before back in her younger days and yet here she was stuck in a totally ludicrous situation due to the – apparently – pestering brunette which will be sure to come her way once she exited the bathroom. Lightning had tried to – at least – put it into nicer words earlier this morning and she could really use less of some threats towards the woman or else they might reverse back into being enemies, and frankly Lightning preferred the more peaceful atmosphere now. However, not having a way out of this problem was getting to her nerves as well. Does she really need to be harsh towards the brunette to make a way out of this?

Seeing that such a long time had passed by and the pinkette has yet to come out, Fang was starting to be a little worried that something had happened to the woman, albeit there was no sudden thumps or thuds sound, but total silence was a little creepy too. Standing from her chair, she made her way to Lightning's bathroom door and attempted to knock on it and check if things were alright in there. Just when she held her hand up and was about to knock against the door, the door suddenly swung open and thankfully Fang's reflexes were fast enough to stop before hitting the pinkette's nose, surprise was written on her face and Lightning was equally stunned as well when she was immediately greeted by the sight of Fang.

Gaining back her posture, Fang cleared her throat a bit and started, "Er, I was just trying to check if you were alright since you'd been in there for a long time. Since y'know, you just recovered and all." She explained with an awkward smile.

Lightning looked away, "I'm fine, and are you moving away? Because you're blocking the way…" she muttered.

"Oh," Fang said as she moved aside for Lightning to walk by. The pinkette walked to the bed and sat down then started to dry her hair without another word. Fang strode over and stopped in front of the pinkette, "You were really good back there, your performance was stunning." She complimented with an earnest tone.

Lightning remained in silence for a short while before finally muttering, "Thanks." And that was it, silence again.

Fang sighed softly, "Is it really that hard to talk?" she asked as she kneeled down to look at Lightning's face, since she was hanging her head low while drying her hair. Fang wanted to see what was Lightning's expression, she remembered what Serah had told her, the pinkette was not a person who was true to the heart sometimes –okay, maybe at most times – , and Fang will have to pay close attention to see if that was really what the pinkette felt to make her move. It was a rather useful trait for Fang to be able to read people easily, since she probably needed a lot of this particular skill when trying to communicate with the stoic and wordless woman.

Lightning was a bit taken aback when Fang suddenly intruded her vision and she looked away, unused to being stared at and looking back at someone who she was not close with, "I told you, leave me alone and you really should. And you're too close, move away."

Fang frowned, she was not pleased with the reply, "Perhaps if you could give me an acceptable reason, then I will." She said.

"I dislike you, that's all." Lightning simply muttered half-heartedly, deep down she knew she did not despise the brunette anymore, but she figured there was not a need to explain herself and something like this might be suffice to shake off Fang.

"How 'bout you look me in the eye when you say that? I don't like being told that someone dislikes me without 'em looking me straight in the eye." Fang said firmly, she wanted to see if Lightning truly meant it, at least the tone was not what it actually sounded, it was too soft and half-hearted to Fang if the pinkette was truly despise of her, unlike the tone on their first encounter.

Lightning frowned, she really hated herself for not being able to lie, why must she be such an honest person? Feeling troubled and unwilling to do as requested for afraid that the brunette may see through her pathetic lie, she remained still.

Seeing the lack of speech from the pinkette, Fang's spirits was lifted slightly, at least this proved as much that Lightning perhaps did not actually meant it, so she still had the chance, and this was probably the first scratch she made against the woman's wall. Fang kept Lebreau's words in mind and backed away for now, giving the pinkette some much needed space sensing that she probably needed it. Striding over to her wardrobe, she grabbed her clothes and headed for the shower without another word.

Lightning heard the rustling of Fang standing up and moved away, then disappeared into the bathroom. She felt a little surprising at the brunette's retreat, she thought for sure the woman would have stayed there until she actually complied. However, she did not, and Lightning was feeling relief for that, perhaps her lie worked and the brunette had decided to draw back.

XXX

Too bad, Lightning's guess was wrong.

Day 1 – after Monday

Lightning had wakened up earlier today so that she could get to CT ground earlier and avoid getting caught in a conversation with Fang again. When she woke up, she was relief to see that Fang was still in bed sleeping away. Quietly, she got out of bed and headed into the bathroom and washed herself up to head out. Once she was done and when she stepped out, Lightning's eyes widened with shock when she saw that Fang's bed was empty. Okay, calm down, maybe she was in the bathroom, she thought. Now was the time to escape, grabbing her things, she made her way to the door and opened it.

And Fang greeted her at the opposite side of the door with a half smirk, "Good morning, a little early, aren't you?"

Lightning merely stared blankly, not knowing what reaction she should give.

XXX

Day 2 – Lunch time

When the bell for break time rang, Lightning upheld her namesake and dashed out of the classroom immediately without allowing Fang the time to catch up. Yesterday, the brunette had made the point to follow her wherever she went, and it was utterly disturbing. Speedily making her way through the crowd and the maze of corridors, she reached the cafeteria and bought her food, then headed straight to the CT training field where there were trees planted around for shades and there were not any people there, just as Lightning hoped for as she had decided to have her lunch out here instead of the roof since the brunette knew her usual hideout spot.

Wandering around the field, she found the hardly noticeable long bench which was mostly covered by the bushes around it. Lightning made her way towards the bench with a grateful heart as she silently thanked the Maker for some quiet and peaceful time alone for today.

And just when she was done thanking the Maker, she started cursing.

Fang was lying on the long bench comfortably with both hands folded behind her head as a makeshift pillow, opening one eye, she smirked when she saw the frowning pinkette, "Why hello, Lightning, what a coincidence. Let's have lunch together, shall we? And just telling ya, I'd known every crook and nook of the university, the best spots for some peace and quietness, _alone._" She commented as she sat up, emphasizing the last word knowing that was what Lightning exactly wished for.

Lightning's left eye twitched with frustration.

XXX

Day 3 – Combat Training

Over the past two days, Lightning's frustration had been adding up to a level where it was almost at the top with Fang constantly following her. When Lightning bumped into her and it was no coincidence, she fled away immediately and soon after she thought she had gotten away, the brunette would appear at another spot where she was headed as if the woman had teleportation skill, and this happened not only twice, but thrice and it was slowly driving the pinkette up the wall. Fortunately for Lightning, today perhaps she could get some release from all the pent up frustration during combat training session.

After being banned for two sessions from Instructor Sazh, today – which was Thurday – Lightning and Fang were allowed back into the training session along with the others. As always, Sazh had everyone assembled into tidy lines before the session started. Seeing that Lightning and Fang had been back in the gather, he turned his brown eyes to the duo and gave them a warning look.

"Fang, Lightning, welcome back, and I hope I don't see another bloody brawl during my class or else warning letters for you two, got it?" Sazh said with a reprimanding finger pointing at the two.

Fang nodded casually, "Yea, yea."

Lightning nodded curtly.

"Good, now all of you, pair up and begin the training." Sazh announced, and after that students began moving towards one another to pick a training partner.

Lightning was about to move away and search for a potential partner to train – someone with higher capabilities because she really needed to release – but was suddenly stopped by a hand on her shoulder, which then gently pulled her attention back to the owner of the hand. Turning around, she scowled threateningly at the brunette and then roughly pulled away from the hand.

"I said don't touch me." Lightning said with hinted annoyance.

"I'm partnering with you." Fang said loud enough for everyone to hear with a smile.

The pinkette's scowl deepened to a murderous degree, her frustration-tolerance-meter had hit the top and was threatening to overflow, "I don't want to." She managed through clenched teeth before turning away.

Fang shrugged, "Not like anyone else will be partnering with you anymore." She said confidently as she scanned around her, yep, the people knew their places. Fang was considerably one of the strongest and wildest well-known fighters in Oerba, and this was no news to other Gran Pulsians which were not of Village Oerba, so they do pay their respect to the fearsome woman. And the other Cocoonian students were afraid of the pinkette's fighting abilities too, they were from the same university back in Cocoon after all, and they had witnessed the gory brawl between the two from a week back and it was enough to put them off, though there were other brilliant Cocoonian fighters as well but they were not as much interested to get in between the two women's business since Fang had already declared who she wanted to partner with.

Looking around her, Lightning saw that everyone had already gotten their partner and most of them were avoiding her sight. With an exasperated sigh, she turned around with a dark scowl, "Fine, you want a fight, you're getting it." She spat reluctantly, and here she thought the brunette had changed for the better, apparently she was wrong since she was obviously still trying to pick a fight with her.

Fang had her reasons to partner with Lightning, she knew and remembered of the injuries on the pinkette's upper back and shoulder which were incurred only a week back, so she was worried if the injuries had not completely recovered. She knew of the knowledge, but what about the others? The others might fight with full speed and power against Lightning and if she was right about the pinkette's injury not completely healed yet, she might get hurt again. If Fang was the one who will be partnering with Lightning, at least she could hold back to a certain degree and take care of the pinkette during training. Besides, it would be nice to be able to fight with someone her level again, though Fang had to hold herself back but she didn't mind much, "I want a training, not a fight, just training." She emphasized to the pinkette who was glaring at her.

Huffing, Lightning turned around and headed for one of the training courts with Fang following behind. Once they were in there, the two stood some distance between them and faced each other. This time though, it was different than before, Fang was wearing a half smile while Lightning's glare was not as intensified as the one before, though it still held the threatening aura, but the atmosphere was much better, at least it was not like they were about to kill each other like the one on their first fight. Although it was only a week after their big fight, but Fang could notice a big change in the atmosphere and in the two of them, maybe only a little bit from Lightning though.

Lightning shifted her feet and held her hands up into her usual fighting stance while Fang did the same. After awhile of squaring off, Lightning took the initiative to hit first and dashed blindingly fast towards Fang, almost catching the brunette off guard. The pinkette could not take her built-up frustration anymore, she needed the release and fine, since Fang offered herself up, she will make good use of it.

Once she was in front of Fang, she jumped into midair and sent a flying side kick aimed at the brunette's head. Out of reflex from the years of training and fighting from before, Fang immediately brought up both her arms and blocked the incoming kick with her forearms, the force was strong enough to send her sliding some distance back. After the kick, Fang was immediately greeted with a jab-cross from the pinkette then another front kick aimed for her guts, but which she had all swiftly blocked and jumped back to put some distance between her and Lightning. Eyeing the speedy woman, her recovery must be doing well, though some doubts still lingered in the brunette's head, it was still better to be careful and be on the defensive for today.

Halfway through fighting, Fang had yet to initiate her own attack against Lightning, even if she did counter attack, she would stop halfway and back off. Her actions and behavior only made Lightning's blood boil, she certainly sensed Fang was holding back and she didn't know why, but she could care less if the woman did not take her seriously, and she will be sure to inflict pain against the brunette. Seeing no intention to attack coming from the brunette, Lightning rushed in again and threw a fake punch towards Fang's face. When Fang reacted and held her hands up to block, Lightning dunk low and headed straight into the opening, wrapping her right arm from under the brunette's left arm and then coming to around the front of her neck while the other arm snaked to the back and held on strongly to her right wrist, making it a lock-hold against Fang's upper body as her right leg shifted behind the woman's legs and tripped her. In one swift movement, Lightning successfully caught Fang off balance and threw the brunette to the ground with a loud thud, with Fang emitting a painful groan when her back made contact with the ground.

Lightning was not finished though, once the brunette was down on the ground, she immediately straddled Fang's middle and pulled her fisted hand back with the intention to hit the woman, and Fang could only brace herself for the inevitable. However, the anticipated punch never came and it stopped right before it touched her nose tip. Blinking at the fist feeling bewildered, she looked up at Lightning whose expression had returned to her normal stoic look, all murderous intent from before had gone away. Sighing, Lightning slowly got up and frowned faintly as she uttered, "A favor for a favor." Then, she turned away from Fang.

Fang quickly climbed to her feet and then called out to the pinkette, "Hey, where're you going?"

Lightning stopped in her steps, "Since you're not going to fight properly, I don't see why I should continue fighting if I'm not being taken seriously." She stated and continued on her tracks.

"Why'd you say that? I took you seriously." Fang countered.

"Then why don't you explain why hadn't you been attacking at all for the past half an hour during the training? I'm not stupid, and I know you'd been holding back. If that's not enough proof of you not taking me seriously during the fight, then what is?" Lightning questioned sternly with a frown, daring Fang to explain herself.

"If you'd only stop putting words into my mouth so that I could explain!" Fang countered with a frown of her own.

Lightning crossed her arms and made a gesture for the brunette to go on, "Explain." She stated.

"I was just holding back because I'm worried that your injuries are not fully recovered yet, alright? I didn't want to worsen it." Fang explained reluctantly, the brunette was a person who hated to explain herself at most time, but this was not most time.

However, listening to this only made the pinkette frowned, "Even if I'm not fully recovered it's my problem, not yours, you should just fight against me properly." She said with a matter-of-fact kind of tone.

Fang rolled her eyes, "Yea, then if your injuries do get worse and risk getting myself guilty? I don't think so."

"Then why the hell do you even partner up with me in the first place?" Lightning queried angrily, this was getting too much.

"Because I know of your injuries, I just wanted to take care of you alright?" Fang answered with a raised voice, her tone one of frustration as well.

This caught Lightning off guard and honestly, she didn't know what else to say. Lacking the ability to search for the right words to say at this time was something Lightning really hated as well. Troubled at the lack of words, she simply forced a few out, "Just don't care about me so much." and attempted to walk away, but was halted by Fang.

"Wait, I'm not finished by the way." Fang said as she approached Lightning, "Since you're so persistent in returning favors, I want to tell you that I'm the same as well, and I absolutely do not like owing people favors, so I'll return a favor that I owed you from before. Meaning from out of three favors that you owe me, you're only down to one last favor that you'll need to pay me back, and I'd thought of what you need to do in order to repay that favor of mine."

Lightning turned on her heels and faced Fang with a frown, something tells her that this 'favor' was not going to be easy on her. "What is it?" she queried.

"All I need," Fang paused, "Is a talk with you. A peaceful, hostility-free talk." She stated.

Lightning reread that request twice in her head, was it really as simple as she had interpreted? Suspecting, she voiced her concerns, "Is that it? It seems… too simple when you could've asked for something more." She said.

"Of course, I want you to be ready to talk, and not be reluctant in that matter, let's just say it's something like a heart-to-heart talk." Fang said and eyed the puzzled frown on Lightning's face the moment she mentioned it, "I know it's probably weird that I'm asking you of this when we'd only known each other for 2 months, but it's all that I want from you and it's really just that simple. I won't take advantage of you just because you owe me a favor, I'm not that kind of person I'd told you. So now I'd voiced out my request, it's up to you to approach me whenever you're ready. If you're not, then I won't start." Fang explained.

So there was a catch, she had to be _willing _to talk and it will probably be something personal she assumed, which was quite difficult for her. However, it was a simple enough request for Lightning to accept, "Fine. I'm ready to talk."

Fang eyed the pinkette and shook her head, "No, you're definitely not, and you're not a very good liar so I would suggest you to not lie and just come whenever you're ready. I'm not rushing you, I'll give you the time and space you need to be ready." She said with a half smile.

Lightning gave it a thought and well, fair enough, "… Alright. You're not to come disturbing me while I get ready." And with that, the pinkette turned to leave the training court.

Fang shrugged and smirked, "Sure, meaning after that I'll get to disturb you eh." She said out of the pinkette's earshot.

XXX

A few days had passed since then, and Fang had been holding onto her words strongly and left Lightning alone for some much needed space and time to get herself ready for some 'talk'. The pinkette was grateful for the granted personal space without annoyance whatsoever to say the least, but the 'talk' that Fang requested kept bugging her in the head, she wondered what was this talk all about but she could not quite figure it out since there were many possibilities, the brunette was quite a surprising individual after all, looking at the sudden changes and behavior of the woman was proof enough.

After a few days of peace and quiet, Lightning's mood had gotten slightly better than before. The pinkette was not much of a morning person, but with the previous pent up frustrations gone she had at least let herself donned her usual facial expression instead of waking up with a scowl from her sleep. Her brow had actually been aching before from all the scowling during her sleep thanks to the brunette. Better still, a change of mood prevented Lightning from being affected by Monday's Blue.

Fang on the other hand, was another story. The few days of not being able to approach the pinkette was strangely bothering her to say the least – though she did not know exactly why – but she had to continue doing so since she promised. And here came Monday again, boring classes and not being able to approach the pinkette and see her amusing reactions – yep, Fang now slowly found it amusing – only doubled the boredom for her. Still, Fang could not skip the class, since Sazh had already gave a warning before for skipping too much, so reluctantly, she woke up from bed to get herself ready for class.

As the brunette sat up groggily, she blinked a few times to adjust her still blurry sight and noticed that Lightning was already up and ready to go. How the pinkette could always be up so early was beyond her comprehension, sleep was like heaven and the bed was like the strongest magnet on earth and yet the woman could resist all of these. Yawning, she got out of bed tiredly and headed for a cold shower to wake herself up.

Hearing the closing of the door from Fang's side of the bathroom, Lightning threw a glance over her shoulder at the closed door and thought about the brunette's request. Since her mood had gotten better, and she was also feeling ready – she think – for that particular 'talk' that Fang requested plus she did not want to delay the brunette's request any further as well, so might as well she initiate it today. Although, _when_ to talk was the problem since later they have class, lunchtime was short – she doubted Fang only wanted a short chitchat anyway – and after that was work, meaning there will only be the time when they return later after work. Settling on that, Lightning gave a nod of agreement.

When Fang stepped out of her bathroom dripping wet and with only a towel wrapping around her body to cover her modesty – and she was lucky to have done that today since she had grabbed a towel along, usually she just walked out naked – she was absolutely surprised and shocked to see that Lightning was still around sitting at her bed, usually she would have been gone by then so Fang was caught off guard. Not to mention that the pinkette was also staring back at the brunette the moment she stepped out, but as soon as their eyes met, Lightning quickly turned away from the sight and blushed as red as a tomato, it was not something that the pinkette could control though and with her porcelain skin it was easily noticeable. Albeit, Fang was also hinted with cheeks of red but her tanned complexion made it hard to be visible.

Coughing gauchely, Fang started first to break the awkward silence, "I er… I thought you were out so I didn't bother to… you know." She explained with a sheepish tone along with some gestures towards her wardrobe.

Lightning shifted uncomfortably and gulped awkwardly before she started, "Right." She managed after awhile, then paused for a bit due to anxiety – frankly speaking, she was not used to dealing with situations like these, and with unusual situations involving nudity often caused her heart to race a tad faster than normal – before she went on, "I was… just wanting- no, waiting for you- no, no," she sighed, agitated at her own stuttering, breathing in a deep breath, she started again calmly, "I just wanted to let you know that I'm ready for the 'talk' that you mentioned, maybe later tonight when we returned after work." She said hastily.

Blinking blankly a few times as she was unable to comprehend what Lightning had said in such a hurry, Fang finally caught on what the pinkette was saying after awhile, "Oh, right," then a pause as she scanned the still reddened pinkette, mentally she chuckled at the scene but of course, she was not physically doing that being aware that the woman probably will not appreciate the action, "Are you sure you're ready? You'll be willing to talk?" she asked again just for double confirmation.

After a moment of silence, Lightning finally replied, "It depends on what we talk about, of course, some things are to be avoided if you get what I mean. That is all." With that, she stood to leave but was halted by Fang's response.

"Then we won't be talking yet, you should know my intention of talking goes into certain depths." Fang said.

Lightning was about to turn and show her a frown but she stopped herself from doing so remembering that the brunette was half naked, "I don't think we're at the point where we can freely talk about anything."

"I'm not saying I'll be asking of your personal life or love life or whatever, but it's mainly about us, friendship and stuff, which you know it'll touch a certain depth of your life when you need to explain why you're so reluctant to let me befriend you. I'm not saying I'm hundred percent certain that you've something that was refraining you, but there could be something that's bothering you, and if you could give me a chance to get things right, maybe you'd change your mind." Fang explained with gentleness laced within her tone, she didn't even realize that this tone was now used to Lightning other than Vanille alone.

Listening to the gentle tone and the earnestness in it, Lightning recalled of what Serah had told her about being fair and giving a chance, which prompted her into giving in to the brunette's conditions of the talk, although Lightning figured it would be her needing to do explanations to put the brunette off in the end. Sighing softly, she replied, "Alright."

Fang's face lit up slightly at the respond, "Now that's what I'd love to hear, tonight it is."

Lightning nodded and was about to exit the room but halted, "One more thing, don't walk around the room naked even if there's no one around." And with that, she left hastily.

Fang could only manage a sheepish smile and nervously scratched the back of her head.

XXX

Ever since NORA had the entertainment period going on, the bar's business had been growing like nobody's business during nighttime. The regular patrons needless to say had been visiting almost every night if not all, and also there had been new visitors brought by the regulars or some were being recommended by them, and the pinkette had even attracted new Cocoonian customers, which subsequently brought a substantial amount of businesses to the bar. Lebreau had finally gotten a few recruits for filling the entertainment period other than just Lightning's performance, but the patrons were actually there more for the pinkette's singing though.

Which was why, Lightning had been made the spotlight every single night by Lebreau since the first performance which was a great show. And whenever it was Lightning's time to perform, the patrons would always mellow down and pay more attention to the stage. Now, there were even patrons who started requesting songs for the pinkette to sing, however Lightning was not comfortable with singing songs that she was not familiar with, so Lebreau being the understanding one had let it slipped for now since the pinkette was already doing a great job with her own performance. Although, perhaps after awhile when Lightning had gotten used to singing on stage, she could probably make the woman accept a few requests for some additional pay from the patrons who requested it(kaching$). Even though she was a Cocoonian, the people here loved the pinkette, although Lebreau did notice a few Pulsian patrons who were not that favorable with her presence. She will have to ask Fang to double her efforts in keeping an eye out for 'trouble' and not let it get through to Lightning.

As Lightning was about to start singing, the bar quieted down and awaited her performance to begin. Fang who was standing at her post looked over to the stage intently. Slowly, Lightning started strumming her guitar as she closed her eyes, which now became a habit of hers whenever she performed on stage and started playing the song that she was so familiar with. It was of course, one of the pinkette's favorites since it was easily relatable to her in some way.

_I walk a lonely road_

_The only one that I had ever known_

_Don't know where it goes_

_But it's home to me and I walk alone_

_I walk this empty street_

_On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams_

_When the city sleeps_

_And I'm the only one and I walk alone_

_I walk alone_

_I walk alone_

_I walk alone_

_I walk a…_

_My shadow's the only one that walks beside me_

_My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating_

_Sometimes I wish someone up there will find me_

'_til then I walk alone_

Fang watched the pinkette which had a hint of sadness behind those opened turquoise eyes, but only for a brief second and Lightning closed her eyes again. Slowly, she felt a wave of heartache washed over her as well as Fang listened to the song, every note and word Lightning sang hit somewhere deep within her heart's strings.

_I'm walking down the line_

_That divides me somewhere in my mind_

_On the border line_

_Of the edge and where I walk alone_

_Read between the lines_

_What's f**ked up and everything's alright_

_Check my vital signs_

_To know I'm still alive and I walk alone_

_I walk alone_

_I walk alone_

_I walk alone_

_I walk a…_

_My shadow's the only one that walks beside me_

_My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating_

_Sometimes I wish someone up there will find me_

'_Til then I walk alone_

_Ah-ah, ah-ah, ah-ah, aah-ah_

As Fang listened on, she could feel the loneliness seeping through those words which Lightning sang. And she felt grateful for the information that was previously given to her by Serah, or else perhaps she wouldn't have been able to grasp a deeper meaning behind each phrase of the song. Or maybe, if she hadn't gotten to know the pinkette better now, Fang would've mistook her as a plain emotional-person who embraces negative feelings.

_I walk alone_

_I walk a…_

_I walk this empty street_

_On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams_

_When the city sleeps_

_And I'm the only and I walk alone…_

_My shadow's the only one that walks beside me_

_My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating_

_Sometimes I wish someone up there will find me_

'_til then I walk alone…_

Now Fang could somehow understand why Serah wanted someone to approach Lightning and was so happy that someone was _willing _to, because deep down in the woman's heart, Lightning actually wanted someone who could understand her and stand by her side. Well, that's decided, Fang would stand by her side.

After a couple more songs being played and sang by Lightning's melodic voice, she stood and bowed slightly as thanks to the patrons who listened intently and enjoyed themselves. Fang smiled at the manners as she watched on. Although, the smile on Fang's face was immediately wiped off when she spotted a group of men with hostility written all over their faces making their way towards the stage, the man who was at the front of the group had his eyes locked on Lightning. Needless to say, there will be a problem soon if she couldn't stop it in time.

Just when Lightning was getting off the stage, the men stopped a distance in front of the stage and the apparent leader called out rudely, "OY, Cocoonian."

Lightning stopped in her tracks, but did not turn around, sensing there will be an inevitable fight if she did turn. After a brief pause, she continued walking away doing her best to ignore that rude tone.

Lebreau noted the about-to-be conflict and wanted to make her way out there from behind the bar, but when she saw Fang making her way hastily through the crowd, she had decided to sit back and watch for the mean time. And it took all she could to hold back the smile at the possibilities, although she was still worried that there will probably be a fight and it might damage the bar, but oh well, this was better than drama on TV, plus she trusted Fang enough to not damage anything.

The man growled out his words, "Cocoonian, I'm talking to ya, are ya just gonna walk away like a coward?"

Lightning's left eye twitched, agitated at the tone that she had to put up with, but nevertheless she did not comply the man's demand and continued on in her path towards the backstage. However, something he said stopped her in her tracks and the ability to be calm and composed altogether, and there was only one thing in her mind – rage.

"Yer parents musta have been some retarded psychos to have brought their daughter up without any basic manners, serves you right to be a Cocoonian slut singing out in the public, how 'bout ya entertain us and we pay ya big bucks?" the man spat out the words with mocking laughter.

Turning around with a murderous glare and a rising dark aura surrounding her, she walked towards the edge of the stage and hopped off, then she pulled her hand back, ready to beat the crap out of the bloody bastard. The men backed off hastily at noticing the threatening aura coming from the pinkette but Lightning was approaching with alarming speed. With a quick dash, Lightning was already in front of the bastard and was ready to rain down hell.

Just when she was about to punch the man square in the face, someone grabbed her hand from behind and stopped her. Turning around with rage filled eyes, she glared at the person who dared to interfere. Unsurprisingly, it was Fang, and it only irked the pinkette even more.

"Let go." Lightning practical growled with anger.

Fang held onto her hand strongly, but gentle enough not to hurt her, "You can't fight them, only a bouncer is allowed to do so. Stand back and leave it to me." She said with a convincing tone.

Lightning was unwilling to stand back and she struggled against the brunette's stronghold, obviously not convinced by Fang, "LET ME GO." She said through clenched teeth and struggled even harder but to no avail since the brunette was a tad stronger than she was.

Tightening her hold on the pinkette's forearm, she pulled her closer and said firmly with solemnity evident in her emerald eyes as she looked into turquoise ones, "Trust me."

Lightning eyed the grinning bastard and then scowling angrily at the brunette, she forcefully snatched her hand away from Fang and decided to walk away, her heart cursing angrily at the bunch of bloody Pulsians which included Fang. Leave it to her? And then the next thing must be those bastards who openly insulted her parents walking away. Insulting her was one thing, but insulting her parents was the most intolerable one. And Fang just had to be the one who stopped her, just when she thought in her heart that perhaps the brunette changed for the better, but surely she would've let those bastards go, since she was a Pulsian and so were the group of bloody men. Lightning's anger spiked so high at the assumed outcome. Just when she took a few angry stomps away from the conflict, a loud thud was heard from behind and it stopped her.

Turning around due to curiosity, Lightning was surprised to find the man who insulted her lying face flat on the ground eating dirt, and the rest donned a fearful expression.

Fang cracked her knuckles loudly and a devilish grin hung on her face, her eyes filled with homicidal intent as well as she looked over to the rest, "So, you guys think it's right to stir up trouble here in NORA ey? And _smart _enough to target our spotlight singer?" she said with a venomous tone and emphasized on the 'smart' word with sarcasm.

The men gulped and some were shaking their heads in fear, as for the man on the ground he groaned in pain. Fang then kneeled and flipped the man over to his back, then pulled him up and his feet off the ground by the collar of his shirt and then snarled dangerously at him, "'Cocoonian slut'? From what I recalled, she was far and much higher than of what you spoke of, and she's a good person free of verbal abuses unlike the like of you bloody bastard." Fang spat heatedly as her glare intensified as she went on, "Lightning's a lady, and you guys are no more than scumbags trying to get a good lesson from me either to your faces or to your groins. If you insult her, you're indirectly insulting me since I believe in my eyes that I see her as a good person of justice. So… are you telling me that I'm wrong? I wouldn't like that either." Fang's words dripped with anger threatening to make the ones who disagreed with her feel what it's like to be in hell.

The man trembled in fear and blood was dripping from his nostrils, "N-no, no, you're right, I'm wrong, she's a good person, a lady!" he said hastily, fearing for dear life.

Fang placed the man back down and a dark look was plastered on her face, "Next time, if you want to pick someone for a fight, remember to pick me since I'm a bouncer in the house, not our lovely bartender." She warned.

The man nodded quickly.

"And," Fang pulled the man around by the collar and stopped in front of Lightning who was now looking this way with shock-filled, widened eyes, she was utterly surprised at what Fang said and did at the moment, "You owe her an apology, scumbag."

The man apologized quickly, "I-I'm sorry, p-please forgive me."

Hearing that and eyeing the blood from the man's broken nose, Lightning's anger had somehow all dissipated. She nodded curtly at Fang to indicate the brunette to let the man go, which Fang complied, although not without another threat.

"You hear me," Fang said clearly to the man, "You find trouble with her again, you're not going to be this lucky next time. Now shoo and get outta here, the owner doesn't welcome your presence as well for causing trouble with her lovely goddess." Fang said as she looked over to Lebreau who gave a thumbs-up and smirked mentally at the dark haired woman.

The man stumbled back when Fang shoved him away back to his group of underlings. Throwing one last glare at Fang and then at Lightning, the man reluctantly ordered to retreat and stomped out of the bar. Finally, after they were gone Fang turned to Lightning whose expression had now returned to a normal, and somewhat soft, from scowls and surprises.

"Hey, you alright?" Fang asked with concern laced in her voice.

Lightning looked to Fang, after awhile she slowly nodded, to be honest she was still very surprised at what happened, which took her a moment to actually adjust her reactions, "Yes." She simply replied.

Smiling faintly, Fang nodded as a respond, "You're not alone." And then she walked away back to her post, but halted when she heard Lightning said something which warmed her heart.

"Thank you… I appreciate it." Lightning said gently and sincerely, after that she walked away back to the bar where Lebreau was smiling dumbly the whole time as the whole scene exchanged.

"You're welcome!" Fang responded loudly with a grin above the noise of the crowd who returned to their drinking after the commotion ended.

Somewhere deep inside Lightning's heart, a warm feeling settled in. Returning to the bar with Lebreau, she continued her tasks. Lebreau walked over to her side then.

"Hey Lightning, you okay?" she asked casually, knowing that Lightning should be fine as she eyed the pinkette's soft expression which was totally different from any of the ones that she had seen, namely stoics and scowls. Maybe Fang probably got to her this time.

Slowly, Lightning nodded as she recalled the incident from earlier again, and the hidden sight from Lebreau hid away her slightly hinted smile at the edge of her lips as she responded, "I suppose so." _Maybe it's not too bad._

XXX

After work, the two went home together as usual ever since the first day Lightning joined work, it had became an usual thing now between the two as Fang enjoyed the company during her journey back to the dorm while Lightning simply paid no mind. But tonight, she felt a bit more comfortable with Fang around than before. On the other hand, even though the atmosphere was at ease, neither decided to speak up but instead remained in a pure, very much comfort silence throughout the whole journey. They were both aware that they were going to 'talk' later anyway, they could always save their breath for the later conversation.

Finally, the two reached their dormitory and then their shared room. Upon entry, Lightning wanted to answer to Fang's request and begin their 'talk', but she did not really know how to initiate one. So instead, she strode to her wardrobe and grabbed her clothes then headed for the shower first, giving her some time to actually prepare herself for something that might have a fifty-percent chances of going nasty. She just only felt that she was somewhat comfortable having the Pulsian woman around, she didn't really like the idea of going back to hostility mode if the talk went awry – e.g. accidental or perhaps intended messages which consisted of verbal abuse during their interchange of words.

"I'm… going to shower first, maybe you should do the same." Lightning simply stated before disappearing into the bathroom.

Fang gave it some thought and agreed, their 'talk' probably was not going to be short, well, Fang would like to drag it long anyway if it was possible, it was difficult to get the woman out in the light to talk with her after all. Grabbing her stuffs, she headed in for a shower as well.

Now, they sat on their respective beds and faced each other, more like Fang properly faced Lightning with her eyes locked onto the pinkette while Lightning's darted elsewhere with the intention of avoiding eye contact, the pinkette found it awkward to actually stare into the brunette's eyes when they were not talking about anything serious or just in dead silence. After awhile of silence, Fang finally broke it.

"So… You're ready to talk yet?" she asked tentatively, not wanting to sound too aggressive for fear that she might put the woman off talk mode.

Lightning mentally thanked the brunette briefly for being the initiator and finally, she looked at Fang then nodded curtly, "What do you want to talk about?"

Fang gestured with her hand between them, "Us." She replied with a faint smile.

Lightning's eyebrows rose briefly, giving a 'Sigh, here comes' look. Seeing the changes in Fang from worst to the better and from all the happenings between them – from when Fang started helping her and even took care of her and then from the revenge earlier – Lightning could actually feel her heart softened a little for the brunette, however, as much as she wanted to consider Fang's request of being friends with her, she was still a bit reluctant and worried about the matter. Lightning knew she was a difficult person to deal with, and she really didn't need Fang, or put it more precisely, didn't want Fang to go through with it for fear that her feelings might get hurt. There was probably no way out other than explaining herself in why she was against the matter, the brunette wouldn't know unless Lightning let her know, so perhaps tonight explanation was inevitable as much as she hated to explain herself. On the other hand, she was not so sure as to how to put what she wanted to explain into words, so instead of beginning the enlightenment, she started on another issue first that had been on her mind since just now, "Before that," she paused, "Why did you do what you did?" she queried.

Fang stared back blankly trying to catch what the pinkette meant, and then she got it, "That?" she said and then followed by a snickered before she went on, "What, you think I'm just going to let them go after all the bullshit they sprouted? I get my views clear enough, and I believe that what they said about you was utterly wrong, so I took the right action in beating 'em up. Look, just because they're Pulsians and I am too doesn't mean that I'm just gonna let them go after what they said, which was overboard, I hope this explains it if that was what you were thinking of me earlier." She explained clearly.

Lightning remained silent for awhile, then she went on, "… You didn't have to do that though, I can handle myself just fine."

"I don't have to, and I know you can handle someone like that just fine. But, you're a bartender, fighting is not allowed in the bar except for the bouncer, which is me. If you ended up fighting them, they might hold you against it and get Lebreau to fire you, although it's also highly unlikely for Lebreau to fire you anyway but it's still better to play it safe. Besides…" Fang then trailed off slightly, "Sometimes I think it's good to have someone watch your back, and show you that you're not alone y'know." The brunette looked into Lightning's turquoise eyes with a solemn but gentle look.

Holding the gaze for a few seconds, she turned away with a frown, Lightning felt that she didn't deserve to be treated this well, it will only make it more difficult for her to turn down Fang's request for being friends later. Sighing, she went on, "Look… I appreciate what you did, but it's really better for you to stay away from me, it's only for your own good."

A frown shown on Fang's face, "It isn't fair for you to decide what's good for me and what's not if you won't even give me a chance." She stated.

Lightning turned to face Fang and sighed softly, "Trust me, you won't like hanging around me. I'm clearly a difficult person to deal with and I'm well aware of that too, so I'm being kind enough to tell you to shake that thought of befriending me off." She explained.

Fang snickered, "You don't even let me get a chance to hang around you, how would you know I'd dislike it? Besides, you think something like that will be enough to shake me off? Trust me, I'm not a person who gives up easily."

The pinkette could only sigh with the reply she got, "Why do you insist in being friends with me? What good do you see?" she asked.

The brunette looked to Lightning with a serious and earnest gaze, "I see you're someone worth getting along with, and you're a good person regardless of nationality." She replied shortly.

Lightning stared at Fang for a couple of seconds before making a look and saying, "… That's it? It doesn't sound very convincing to me. And from this I can probably tell you to back off because I doubt you really know what you see in me, in fact, I'm a difficult person end of story." And with that, Lightning started to stand but Fang stopped her.

"We're not finished," Fang countered, "I believe in what I saw. And I remember the incident from back then clear as day."

Lightning settled her weight back down onto the bed with an arched curious eyebrow, "What incident?" she asked.

"You and the Pulsian boy, like I said, I witnessed everything," Fang sighed in between, "But the moment I told you I saw that, you went on accusing me of pitying you and I hardly know the reason why, but there's one thing that I'm sure of, I wasn't pitying you." She explained.

Lightning kept quiet as she recalled back the event between them which probably took place a week back, where she was still absolutely wary of the Pulse woman. It was only natural she thought, since back then she could still hardly feel the change from the brunette. Now though, she was starting to feel bad, "… Look, I was just unused to sudden kindness especially coming from you." She replied.

Fang snickered lightly, "Thought so," then a pause before she went on, "If you want to know why I want to befriend you so much though, mainly it's because of that incident."

Instead of shrugging it off this time, Lightning wanted to hear a clearer reason, "Why?" she asked, focused turquoise eyes locked on emerald ones, curiosity laced behind its bluish-green irises and also alertness in case the brunette was lying just to get closer to her goal.

Fang eyed the woman and smirked slightly, now she was interested eh, though still untrusting but Fang was not the least bit bothered since all that she was about to say was true from her heart, "That day, I was also on my way to work, and like you, I was using the shortcut. Then I heard the scream, I ran towards the source sensing danger, but apparently you already beat me to it when I got there, you were fighting off those large bastards and protecting the Pulsian kid. What surprised me was that… I never thought that a Cocoonian and someone like _you _would actually shield the boy with your body when you could have easily avoided. It was then that I saw a change in you." Fang explained and then leaned backwards on her hands, "Let's just say… I was very surprised to know that a Pulsian-hater would protect a Pulsian, and also it was refreshing to see someone with such justice in the city, normally people would just walk by without a second glance but not you, you fought for the kid, and frankly speaking," Fang got back up and straightened her back, "You earned my respect, and also my curiosity after a few other incidents, so which is why… I want to befriend you, and get to know you more. Perhaps this is a chance for me to change my views towards Cocoonians, and I figured perhaps we could get along, no harm being friends." The brunette said with a half smile.

Lightning listened and suddenly she felt her face warmed, she was not that used to compliments like these as well and she really didn't know what to respond other than, "… Right."

Fang chuckled, "That it? After such a long enlightenment coming from me and you're just giving me a 'right'? How about a yes to being friends?" she said.

After what seemed like a long silence to Fang, Lightning finally replied, "… No." with a half-hearted tone.

Fang frowned, "Why not?"

"I'm glad you thought well of me now but let's just say it's easier for me to stay acquaintances with you." The pinkette responded.

Fang remained in silent for a bit before she went on, "Do I get a clear reason of why you just want to turn me down? I'm sure there's more to it than just what you said earlier."

Lightning hesitated a brief second before she finally gave up and decided to start explaining herself for the persistent woman, "Fine, you want a clear reason, I'll give you one. Believe it or not, I don't want to hurt you. I've trust issues and clearly being friends mean bonding, and bonding needs trust, if there's no trust, things would only go awry between you and me, and to be honest, I prefer the way it is now, peaceful and quiet and just keeping to your own business while I tend to mine. I'm especially bad at dealing with people, so, if you don't want to get hurt due to me being untrusting towards you and all, it's best you just stay away. I don't have a lot of friends, but I do know how much the lack of trust could hurt the other party." She paused for a bit and frowned as she recalled a few events from her past, "Trust me… it's better to stay away." She finished.

Fang listened to Lightning with a thoughtful look, after awhile she continued, "I've only one thing to say and it's the same thing, it isn't _fair_ for you to decide it for me, why don't you let me decide? Even if I do get hurt, it's my own doing, not your fault. Besides, I think it's time someone gotta start teaching you something about 'trust'."

Lightning frowned in confusion as she looked to the brunette.

"Just give me a chance to prove to you that I'm trustworthy enough for you to put your trust in me, if you'd just give me a chance, I'd show you that you'd made the right decision." Fang said with a determined look plastered on her face.

Eyeing the determined look on Fang's face and listening to that statement, Lightning could suddenly feel some part of her wall chipped away and a warm feeling tugged at her heart. Recalling back to Serah's words, her heart softened even more. Sighing, she decided to consider the matter due to Fang's earnest plead and persistence, "Just… give me some time to think about it."

Fang's tightly pressed lips in a show of worry from earlier now turned into a grin, happy that the pinkette finally decided to give a thought about it, at least it was not a direct 'no' shot at her face again, she was after all tired of rejections from the pinkette as well, "Sure, no problem, just make sure you think it through and be fair to me, yea? I think we'll leave it at that, it's getting late."

Lightning glanced over to her clock which reads 12.45am, and then exhaustion suddenly washed over her like a wave, as if she had just finished some big business now that the talk was over – or at least she thought so – since talking was quite a big thing for someone as wordless as her, "Right… we'll end here." With that, Lightning got up to fumble with a few things before turning in for bed.

After they turned off the lights, Fang turned her head and looked over to Lightning, "Oy."

A few seconds later, "… What?" Lightning mumbled tiredly.

"Good night." Fang wished with her lips slightly curled up hearing the tiredness in the pinkette's tone. _How adorable._

After a long while with no respond, Fang thought Lightning was asleep and she turned back onto her side with her back facing the pinkette's bed. Then suddenly, came Lightning's audible whisper of 'good night', which made Fang smiled as she drifted to sleep.

XXX

Several days had passed since they last had their 'talk', but Lightning has yet to make a decision about the matter and Fang on the other hand, was getting a bit impatient at the lack of respond. Unfortunately though, the brunette could not do much as to pester the pinkette, she will not take the risk of getting on Lightning's bad side by pestering her.

However… maybe she could _talk _a bit, talking didn't sound like harassing to Fang, and perhaps she could test the waters with Lightning a little to see how has her decision making been going with the pinkette's tone and behavior, "Hey, Lightning." Fang called out to the pinkette who was seated next to her in class right now.

Lightning glanced over and arched an eyebrow, indicating for Fang to continue.

"Are you actually paying attention to ol' Sazh? I mean, it's so boring…" Fang dragged out the last sentence with a lazy stretch.

Lightning merely stared at her for a bit before returning her gaze to the instructor speaking in front, "Quiet and pay attention, if you don't want to then don't bother me." She stated simply.

Fang sighed, _meh, still cold as ice. _She thought. Maybe now was not a good time either though.

Finally, after what seemed like forever to Fang, it was lunchtime. As the instructor left, so were the students and Lightning was about to leave for some food as well but then stopped by Fang.

"Hey, since class's ended, it's okay to bother you now maybe? Let's have lunch together?" Fang asked with a half smile.

Lightning remained silent and gave a thoughtful look for a short while before finally answering, "No, I want some time alone." And with that, the pinkette left.

Poor Fang stared on at the retreating form with a defeated sigh. Could she really succeed in reaching out to Lightning?

XXX

After class ended, Lightning had some things to attend to back in the university, so that meant Fang will be walking alone to work today. Grabbing her stuffs, she went back to the dorm and got herself changed into suitable working attire before heading out for NORA.

Along the way through the shortcut that she was taking, Fang's sharp senses could sense that someone was following her, and perhaps not only one but quite a few number. The brunette's senses and alertness spiked up as she continued her walk, pausing ever so slightly in her tracks to turn and threw a glance over her shoulder but there was no one in sight, so she continued walking.

Suddenly, Fang broke into a sprint and finally, the stalkers appeared in sight as they chased after her. As Fang continued to run full speed ahead, the road in front was suddenly blocked with blockages and so she abruptly turned into a back alley which would lead to the main street at the back of the buildings. However, to her surprise, there was already a group consisting of 8 men, some even yielding a threatening looking stick waiting for her there, and she recognized the man who stood at the front of the others as the same man she hit few days back. Poor guy still had an ugly bruise on his nose, and Fang smirked at the sight. A couple of seconds later, the sound of numerous footsteps headed towards here came to a stop. Turning around, Fang saw there were another 5 men behind. Well, apparently it was being planned by that bastard with the intention of revenge by taking her on with 13 men.

The assumed leader walked towards Fang with a crooked smile, "Well, well, Ms Bouncer. Howya doing today?"

Fang shrugged, "Pretty good." She replied with a confident smirk as she scanned the rest, readying herself for a nasty brawl.

The man scowled at the smirk, "Good to hear that," he paused and then a wicked grin slowly crept onto his face, "Well, you do know why you and I are here now, don't you?"

"Well, it's hard to figure out a brain filled with so much idiocy y'know, so nope I don't know." Fang countered as her trademark grin shown.

The man's scowl deepened, his jaw twitching away angrily, "Well," he started through clenched teeth, "Let me get this straight, if ya apologize to me about what ya did now on the other day, I might still consider letting ya go. After all, I wouldn't wanna have such a beauty like ya gettin' bruises everywhere."

The brunette's grin disappeared and was replaced with a dangerous glare, "Apologize for what? Standing up for a good person getting insults that she didn't deserve from a bastard like you? I think not." She said as her glare intensified and a threatening grin appeared.

The man was taken aback at the glare and the respond, but scowled angrily back at the brunette as he held his hand up and pointed at Fang, "Men, beat the crap outta 'er!" he commanded loudly.

As soon as the words left his mouth, the group of men began advancing towards her. Fang had managed to dodge and maneuvered her way out of being surrounded by the hostile men, however it was proving a bit hard for her to counterattack the men since there were too many of them and she was alone, dodging and evading was already enough work for the brunette. After several dodges of attacks from the men, she finally found a spot to counterattack against one of the men, and once she did the man was knocked out with a powerful blow to the head. Well, one down, twelve to go, and slowly Fang was gaining the upper hand as she downed another one. However, that left her back opened to enemies for ambush and there was not enough time to evade.

Fang was expecting the inevitable blow to her back with the stick in the enemy's hand while she was busy fending off the others, but the blow never came, instead she heard the cracking of wood and a loud, painful yelp coming from the back. Once the brunette managed to push all the other attackers back for the moment, she turned her head around and she was surprised to find Lightning there.

Shocked, she asked, "What're you doing here?" Just as Fang was busy wondering, the attackers who stopped briefly before to look at the new ally by the brunette's side began advancing towards them again.

Lightning made a 'tch' sound before jumping into action fighting against the men. A kick, a punch, followed by an elbow and then a knee to the attacker's head. And one of the poor men fell with a thud. Then Lightning was on to the other one with blinding speed, while Fang was merely standing one side with a dumbfounded expression on her face. Noticing the brunette was not helping, she managed to yell out in the midst of battle, "Don't just stand there, fight!" Lightning dodged a hook swiftly and countered with an elbowing to the man's gut.

Fang snapped out of it and joined in the fight, together they worked with an unexplainable chemistry which allowed them to down one after another rapidly. Within a couple of minutes, the two best fighters had finished off all twelve men with only one left standing, which was the leader who initiated all these and immediately went on his knees begging for dear life when the two women turned their murderous glare on the man.

"P-P-Plea-please le-let me g-go!" he stuttered with fear clearly audible in his voice.

Fang and Lightning moved towards the man, their glares unfaltering, causing the man to shiver. He wanted to run so badly, but after witnessing how the whole scene unfolded, it was impossible to escape from the two women. Slowly, the two women came to a stop in front of the shivering man, and Fang approached with a threatening grin slowly forming on her face.

"So… Tell me how did my day went again?" she asked, her tone laced heavily with threat but with a hint of amusement looking at the sight, which Lightning caught it and she inwardly smirked.

The man started with trembling voice, "W-well… G-good?" he replied with a shaky smile.

Fang's grin widened dangerously, "What about yours?"

The poor man gulped and he forced himself to reply, "G-Good."

"Oh," Fang uttered and then a pause as her grin was wiped off of her face, "You gave me the wrong answer, mate." And with that, a hook to the jaw and a hit to the neck was enough to knock the man out cold. And yes, he deserved that. "And my day was great." She stated as she glanced over her shoulder at her pink haired savior.

Lightning walked up to Fang and the brunette turned around at the approaching footsteps, "You alright?" Lightning asked.

Fang was a bit surprised to hear that this was the first thing out of the pinkette's mouth, concern was the least that she expected coming from the other woman. Nodding, she replied, "Yep, how about you? Hurt anywhere?" she asked with worry.

Lightning shook her head, "I'm fine. And I apologize… This man, he was the one from the other day wasn't he? You were being targeted because of standing up for me, and I'm sorry for troubling you." She said apologetically.

Fang snickered, "Oh c'mon, it was nowhere near troubling, it was fun, don't you find it fun?"

Lightning stared at her with a blank expression, "Fun? You almost got hit at the back."

"Well," Fang started, "Honestly, don't be sorry, I'm glad I stood up for you and was being targeted instead of you, or else you'd be in my place. It's alright, y'hear?" she said with a smile.

The pinkette remained silent for a long while, causing the atmosphere around the two slowly getting tensed. Finally, a smile crept onto Lightning's face, which made Fang widened her eyes with surprise at such a beautiful sight. She had never thought she would get to see a smile from the pinkette, and it was meant _for her _too, at least not within such a short time. Stunned, Fang was rendered speechless and strange enough, she was starting to feel warm as if the temperature around them had risen a degree or two.

Lightning let the smile remained on her face as she started out slowly, "Fang," she called out the brunette's name for the first time ever since she had been here, and her smile widened a bit as she went on, "Thank you." Lightning said with the gentlest tone that Fang had ever gotten to hear from the woman for the very first time.

Fang felt her heart had just skipped several beats at the mere sight of Lightning with that smile on her face, and the gentle tone felt as if it melted her heart, and she was starting to feel hot instead of warm now. Gathering herself together, she managed to get a few words out nervously, though she didn't know why she was being nervous, "You're welcome." She smiled nervously.

Lightning eyed the brunette and her smile faded a little, "Are you alright? You seem… a little… red in the face?" she asked with concern hinted in her voice.

Fang backed away slightly at the sudden question, shocked at being caught off guard, reason was that she didn't know why she was feeling so hot all of a sudden either. "Ah, er, I'm fine. Don't worry." She stated hastily and shook her head a little to get a little levelheaded. _What's with me? _She asked herself, but then her heart started thumping, and then slowly she knew why as a familiar feeling settled in.

Lightning nodded curtly, "If you say so." She said and then a brief pause before she continued, "Fang, about the matter… I had given it some thought."

Upon hearing that, all thoughts were being pushed aside as Fang focused back on Lightning and on the answer that she had been _patiently _waiting for. With emerald eyes fixed on the pinkette, she waited for the rest to come, her expression one of eagerness.

A nod was given by Lightning, but Fang did not want to assume things too fast, she needed a confirmed, direct reply coming from the pinkette's mouth. Lightning caught the drift and she parted her mouth to answer Fang's question, "I'll give you a chance, but just don't get too 'over-friendly' with me, keeping some distance is still a requirement."

Once Lightning finished, Fang broke into a full ear-to-ear grin, absolutely happy at the respond when her wish came true. And somewhere deep down in her heart, she could feel a warm feeling resided in there, she knew it was not only because she was happy that she had gotten the chance to be friends with Lightning, but she knew her heart a little too well too.

Maybe she was starting to like the pinkette a little too much, but of course, it was too much for Fang, which the brunette shook the feeling off. Right now, she only wanted to be friends with Lightning and even in the future, she would only want to remain friends, nothing more, nothing less. She knew being friends was all that she could manage with a Cocoonian. Even though the hatred towards Cocoonians was slowly fading, but some knots in Fang's heart remained. Regardless, she was still feeling joyous and she held out a hand to Lightning, who returned an arched, puzzled eyebrow at the hand, "I think we should do a proper introduction, we haven't even introduced ourselves before in the past. I'm Oerba Yun Fang." Fang said as she stretched out her hand further for Lightning to take.

Lightning took the hand and gave it a shake, "Lightning Farron." She introduced her full name.

Fang smiled, "Pleased to finally meet you, and I'm sure we'll get along."

Lightning returned a faint smile, "Let's hope we do."

Surely, Fang would make it worthwhile for Lightning enough to trust her.

* * *

**A/N: Okay, I'd been receiving reviews about how repetitive I am being and some mistakes that I had been making, I appreciate you readers for pointing it out and I'll do my very best to improve like I'd said before, but please bear the patience with me that I'm not exactly an experienced writer or a pro in any case so it might be frustrating to probably find the same mistakes over again, but I'll keep all of your advice close to heart. And hopefully I could improve in the following chapters. **

**And on one particular note... Readers, I only know English and a few other languages, but French is not one of it sadly, so if you'd be so kind to review in English... I'd be very grateful. **

**Back to the story, so yea, they're now friends after a couple of 'fights' that they have to go through, this was how I deemed fit to how they become friends anyway imo ha, since they were both reluctant to only agree on words, some action is needed to used as input. Oh, and just in case you guys are confused at how I described Lightning's lock-hold (since I suck at descriptions) you can always look up Shingeki no Kyojin, or Attack On Titan's Annie vs Eren hand-to-hand combat scene, no copyright intended but I found the move cool so I used it, credits to snk or aot! **

**Finally now that this chapter of how they became friends is done, the story will now slowly progress uphill, and hopefully you guys can stick with this story. And the song that Lightning sang in this chapter is called Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day in case some of you are wondering and want to know what the song is. **

**Next chapter will probably be... slow, please be patient dear readers! **


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